Boris Johnson says WhatsApps for Covid inquiry recovered

Boris Johnson says WhatsApps before May 2021 that are due to be handed to the Covid inquiry have now been downloaded.

There has been a delay in getting them to the inquiry, as they were on the former PM's old phone and he could not remember the pass code.

Technicians feared that getting it wrong could lead to the data being wiped.

But there was a breakthrough last week, when the government found a record of his Pin code.

A spokesman said technical experts had now "successfully recovered all relevant messages from the device".

"The inquiry process requires that a security check of this material is now made by the Cabinet Office," the spokesman added.

"The timing of any further progress on delivery to the inquiry is therefore under the Cabinet Office's control."

The inquiry has requested the WhatsApp messages as part of its investigations into UK government decision-making on Covid. Hearings for that part of the inquiry are due to begin in October.

It has requested messages on Mr Johnson's devices from a group chat that was set up to discuss the pandemic response.

It has also demanded his one-to-one messages exchanged during the pandemic with around 40 politicians, advisers and officials, including then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Simon Case, the UK's top civil servant.

The government had attempted to block release of the raw messages, arguing that some of them were irrelevant to the inquiry and that it should be able to redact - or block out - these first before handing them over.

But it was ordered to hand over the messages unredacted earlier this month, after a legal challenge it mounted was struck down in the High Court.

Other messages the High Court ruled should be shared with the inquiry were sent last week.

Mr Johnson was forced to change his mobile phone in 2021 after it emerged his number had been publicly available online for 15 years.

The former prime minister insisted throughout that he was happy to share the messages on his old phone when they are accessible.

The eventual release of the messages to the inquiry does not necessarily mean the public will see them in full.

The Cabinet Office can apply to the inquiry to make redactions before they are sent to so-called core participants including other witnesses, government departments and bereaved family groups.

The inquiry could also apply its own redactions. It could also decide not to make them public at all.