Ministers have been accused of a Covid Inquiry cover-up after Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp texts and notebooks apparently vanished.
The Cabinet Office claimed it no longer held the material, parts of which it had insisted were irrelevant anyway.
Lib Dem Daisy Cooper said: “This will raise suspicions of a Tory cover-up.”
Ministers have been given until 4pm tomorrow to hand over the messages.
The Cabinet Office’s insistence it no longer has messages from Boris Johnson it said were irrelevant to the Covid Inquiry has led to claims ministers have something to hide.
And grieving relatives of those killed by the virus demanded his WhatsApp texts and notebooks be handed over amid accusations of a cover-up and a bid to obstruct progress.
Officials had faced a 4pm deadline to give inquiry chair Baroness Heather Hallett, 73, the former PM’s messages, parts of which government lawyers wanted redacted.
But just hours before that the Cabinet Office insisted it did not have the material.
Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice spokeswoman Susie Flintham said: “The lengths the Cabinet Office are going to in order to stop Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages and diaries from being shared with the Covid Inquiry should alarm everyone.
“This inquiry needs to get to the facts if it is to learn lessons to help save lives.
“So why are the Cabinet Office standing in their way? Our members are wondering what they are hiding.”
The group’s Becky Kummer added: “Whoever is sitting in the Cabinet Office scheming these excuses to stop the inquiry from accessing Johnson’s WhatsApp messages should for once think of families like mine.
“While they were sending WhatsApps to each other so awful they now need to cover them up, I was WhatsApping my last words to my dad.”
The inquiry’s purpose is to identify lessons learned from the pandemic which has killed more than 200,000 Brits and create changes to prevent a similar crisis.
But Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner accused ministers of “delaying tactics” over former Prime Minister’s Mr Johnson’s messages. She said: “This is a Government with much to hide.
“It now appears that vital evidence has gone missing. It must be found and handed over if the whiff of a cover-up is to be avoided.”
Lib Dem MP Layla Moran, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus, added: “The Government must stop obstructing the Covid Inquiry.” Her party’s deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “This ‘dog ate my homework’ type excuse from the Government doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.
For the Cabinet Office to simultaneously refuse to disclose Boris Johnson’s messages because they were irrelevant to the inquiry, whilst claiming not to even have them, will raise suspicions of another Tory cover-up.”
The deadline to handover Mr Johnson’s messages and notes was extended until 4pm tomorrow, after requests by lawyers for an extension until Monday were rejected by Baroness Hallett.
It is unclear what has happened to the missing material. Downing Street signalled Mr Johnson could hand over details to the inquiry, which opens its public hearings next month.
Rishi Sunak’s spokesman said: “It is down to individuals to decide what personal information they hand over.”
Mr Johnson’s team said the notebooks and WhatsApps were handed to the Cabinet Office legal team, but he has since parted ways with his government lawyers.
The inquiry had sent a legal request on April 28 for messages and diaries belonging to the Tory MP covering January 2020 to February 2022.
But the Cabinet Office resisted. Refusing to comply could lead to a legal clash with the inquiry.
Former Civil Service boss Lord Kerslake said: “There’s some cover-up going on to save embarrassment of ministers. There’s also the Cabinet Office fighting for a principle of confidentiality. I have to say I think they’re misguided on this situation.”
But Oxford University’s Regius Professor of Medicine Sir John Bell added: “The thing about the inquiry is what do we do about what we have learned to solve future pandemics.
“I’m not entirely sure what a load of WhatsApp messages are going to contribute to that.”
The Cabinet Office said: “We have provided around 55,000 documents. However, we are of the view that the inquiry does not have the power to request unambiguously irrelevant information beyond the scope of this investigation.”
