The head of the Covid inquiry was warned on Thursday that her probe may be flawed if it is denied material by the Government.
Lord Saville, who chaired the Bloody Sunday inquiry, backed Baroness Hallett’s demand that the inquiry team should decide what material is relevant or not. His comments came as the Government was seeking a last-ditch compromise over the clash to avoid it escalating into a court showdown.
The Cabinet Office has argued that it should withhold material deemed by senior lawyers to be “unambiguously irrelevant” to the inquiry.
But Lord Saville told Times Radio: “The question as to whether the material is relevant or not is in my view at least primarily for her, and nobody else.
“If she simply accepts the word of somebody else that the material is irrelevant she will not in my view at least have done as thorough a job as she should.”
The row centres on a demand by the inquiry to disclose Boris Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages and diaries, as well as correspondence with a host of Government figures, civil servants and officials.
The list includes England’s chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty, as well as then-chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance.
Messages with then-foreign secretary Liz Truss and then-health secretary Matt Hancock have also been requested, as well as with former top aide Dominic Cummings and then-chancellor Rishi Sunak. The Cabinet Office was given until 4pm to hand over the documents or face the threat of a criminal prosecution. The Government had argued that it did not have the messages and notebooks, but Mr Johnson has handed them over to officials and said they should be disclosed.
Mr Johnson’s decision to publicly confirm he has handed over the material — stripping the Cabinet Office of one of its defences — and his suggestion that it should be disclosed to the inquiry has heaped pressure on his successor’s government.
Whitehall officials are concerned about the wider precedent that will be set by handing over swathes of unredacted WhatsApp conversations, with fears that the inquiry will seek similar levels of disclosure from other senior figures including Mr Sunak himself.
Mr Johnson’s spokesman said: “All Boris Johnson’s material — including WhatsApps and notebooks — requested by the Covid inquiry has been handed to the Cabinet Office in full and in unredacted form.
“Mr Johnson urges the Cabinet Office to urgently disclose it to the inquiry.
“The Cabinet Office has had access to this material for several months. Mr Johnson would immediately disclose it directly to the inquiry if asked.”
Lady Hallett issued her demand for the material under the Inquiries Act, and failure to comply could lead to prosecution and a potential fine or jail term for an individual found guilty of the offence.
The Government could seek a judicial review of her notice, questioning whether the demand for the documents falls within the scope of her inquiry — but legal experts have suggested the Cabinet Office would have a weak case given Lady Hallett’s wide terms of reference.
A Cabinet Office spokesman said it has already provided 55,000 documents but added: “However, we are firmly of the view that the inquiry does not have the power to request unambiguously irrelevant information that is beyond the scope of this investigation”.
