Row over Covid inquiry rages on as ministers to decide TOMORROW whether to take ... trends now
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Ministers will decide tomorrow whether to launch legal action against the official Covid inquiry after it demanded the Government hand over unredacted messages from Boris Johnson.
The Cabinet Office has refused to provide all the former prime minister's WhatsApp messages and diaries to inquiry chairwoman Baroness Hallett on the grounds that it would be a 'serious intrusion of privacy'.
But she has warned that failure to comply with her section 21 order of the Inquiries Act to release the material would amount to a criminal offence.
The Cabinet Office is continuing to argue that the inquiry does not have the power to compel it to release material it deems 'unambiguously irrelevant' as it could set a harmful precedent.
It says it has already provided more than 55,000 documents, 24 personal witness statements and eight corporate statements to the inquiry.
The Cabinet Office has refused to provide all the former prime minister's WhatsApp messages and diaries to inquiry chairwoman Baroness Hallett (pictured) on the grounds that it would be a 'serious intrusion of privacy'
The row comes after it emerged that the Cabinet Office had handed extracts from Mr Johnson's (pictured) prime ministerial diaries to the police without telling him
Any legal challenge would also block the release of messages from Rishi Sunak, who was chancellor at the time, and around 40 other senior figures.
The Government has until 4pm tomorrow to decide whether to launch legal action to quash Lady Hallett's demands, and sources said discussions were ongoing last night.
The first public hearings of the Covid inquiry are due to begin in a fortnight, and the outcome of the row is central to shaping it.
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