The British government refuses to hand over uncensored WhatsApp messages from Johnson to the inquiry. Now the former prime minister wants to hand them over himself – thus putting him on a collision course with the government.
A row between the government and a parliamentary committee over the corona inquiries in Great Britain has been escalating for days: the latter is investigating the government’s actions during the pandemic and demanding the uncensored WhatsApp history of former prime minister Boris. Johnson with government representatives of this period. This group prefers to examine calendar entries and notebooks. However, the government agency, the Cabinet Office, refused to hand over the required documents without an audit.
Now Johnson has gone on a confrontational course with the government – and announced that he will send messages directly to the group. This was reported by the British news agency PA, citing a letter written by a conservative politician to the committee. A day long drawn out fight in chat history has come to an end.
The government wanted to go to court
With his move, Johnson is defying his party colleague Rishi Sunak’s incumbent government. He justifies his earlier refusal by saying that the content of WhatsApp messages is largely irrelevant to the committee. Despite the threat of criminal consequences, he granted a deadline on Thursday and announced he would go to court.
According to media reports, the government may fear that releasing the required news will also bring renewed scrutiny to Sunak’s role in the epidemic. The current head of government was then the finance minister. Messages from other ministers may also be seen in the process of damaging their public image.
Johnson, on the other hand, has little to lose. He was forced to resign as prime minister last summer due to ongoing scandals. However, he is said to be aiming to return to a top government post.
Johnson had already exposed the government on Wednesday evening when he handed over his messages and memos to the Cabinet Office and demanded they be sent to the committee. The authority had said that the news was not in its possession till then. In his letter to the committee, the former prime minister also announced that he would provide more WhatsApp messages if the government allowed old cell phones.
227,000 confirmed deaths
The Corona Commission is tasked with working through the British government’s hesitant and sometimes confused handling of the pandemic. According to death certificates, around 227,000 people have died from Covid-19 in the UK – significantly more than in Germany.
It’s an open secret that even important intra-government deals in London are settled over WhatsApp. The content of more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages from former health minister Matt Hancock became public only in March, prompting the former minister to demand an explanation. A journalist who worked as Hancock’s ghostwriter sent the news to the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
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