LONDON — Get ready for another three years of this.
With the the coronavirus pandemic over, the U.K.’s official inquiry into it — expected to run until 2026 — has yet to hold a single public hearing. But it’s already embroiled in a bitter disclosure dispute with the government over whether to hand over ministers’ private WhatsApp messages and notebooks.
The post-mortem will drag on past the next general election, as confirmed Tuesday. It’s expected to call on senior figures from a series of British governments, roving over the state’s preparedness for the virus, decision-making by ministers and officials, the way public contracts were handed out, and how the country got jabs in arms.
Yet before any of that, there’s the small matter of what the inquiry will actually be allowed to see.
In a series of interviews Wednesday morning, Cabinet minister Mel Stride said the government will be “absolutely robustly transparent where it is appropriate to be so.”
“I think that’s an important qualification, so that the inquiry has all the information that it is right for it to have,” Stride told Sky News.
It’s the latest signal that the Cabinet Office — which has been ordered to hand over unredacted messages and diaries belonging to top ministers, including ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, by the end of Thursday — is sticking to its guns.
The public inquiry’s chair, Heather Hallett, has requested the documents. And already, the government argues much of what it’s being asked to hand over is “unambiguously irrelevant to the Inquiry’s work.” The dispute could end up in the courts.
A fresh twist came Tuesday when the inquiry said it had been informed by the Cabinet Office that it does not, in fact, possess either Johnson’s messages or his notebooks. But on that point, Hallett wants proof.
She’s said that the Cabinet Office must provide “in substitute a witness statement from a senior civil servant” proving it does not have the specified materials “in its custody or under its control.”
The Cabinet Office has until Thursday afternoon to comply with that request — and an official from the department told POLITICO London Playbook all options are still on the table.
‘Looks really slippery’
Johnson’s notebooks have already landed him in hot water. The former prime minister was referred to police — again — when his own legal team reportedly raised concerns that he may have breached COVID lockdown rules. Johnson has called the claims “absolute nonsense” and said his diary entries are “completely innocent.”
A spokesperson for the former prime minister said, “Johnson has no objection to disclosing material to the inquiry. He has done so and will continue to do so.”
“The decision to challenge the inquiry’s position on redactions is for the Cabinet Office,” the spokesperson added.
Seizing on the row, the U.K.’s opposition Labour Party said it was not for ministers “to decide what is and is not relevant material” for the inquiry.
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting told Sky News Wednesday: “I think the prime minister looks really slippery today. He says he wants the government to cooperate with the inquiry but the government has been withholding information the inquiry has asked for.”
He added: “One minute the government says the messages they have are immaterial; the next minute they’re saying they don’t exist. Which is it?”
Defending the length of the inquiry, Stride meanwhile said on LBC talk radio it was “right that we have a really thorough and detailed examination of the big questions that there are to ask about both the pandemic and the government’s response to it.”
The post ‘Robustly transparent’ or ‘really slippery’? UK ministers dispute WhatsApp disclosures in COVID inquiry appeared first on Politico.
