It’s going to raise some serious questions about Starmer in Durham and Sue Grey.
More popcorn …
Rishi Sunak says he is not worried about being embarrassed by messages seen by the Covid inquiry, despite a legal wrangle over their disclosure.
The prime minister insisted he was being transparent in his approach. He added that he was personally providing information, and it was taking up “a lot of my own time”.
Speaking to BBC political editor Chris Mason during a two-day trip to the United States, Mr Sunak said he could not comment on the specifics as the case was ongoing. But he insisted the government had acted with “candour and transparency”, including disclosing more than 55,000 documents so far, with “more to come”.
Dixie Maloney, a corporate events organiser, stayed at the former prime minister’s grace-and-favour country mansion on 7 May 2021 when indoor gatherings between different households were banned except when “reasonably necessary” for reasons such as work or childcare.
She is understood to have been informally helping to plan the couples’ festival-style wedding, which took place in the Downing Street garden three weeks later.
A spokesperson for Maloney issued a statement saying she would not have done anything that she believed at the time to be unlawful. Johnson’s spokesperson said the stay was “entirely lawful” and sources close to him said Maloney was allowed to be there for childcare reasons at a time when Carrie was pregnant.
Indoor gatherings between different households were only allowed if they were regarded as “reasonably necessary” for work purposes, informal childcare or to provide care or assistance to a vulnerable person, including someone who was pregnant.
A spokesperson for Maloney told the Guardian: “Ms Maloney took her obligations under the relevant Covid restrictions very seriously. She would not have done anything at the relevant time unless she honestly believed that it was lawful to do so.
“Ms Maloney has never been formally engaged to work for either Boris or Carrie Johnson, nor has she ever held any public role, whether in government or otherwise.”
A spokesperson for Johnson said: “This was entirely lawful, and it was covered by relevant provisions in the Covid regulations. To suggest otherwise is totally untrue.”
Back to bluster … 
The government’s legal challenge to the Covid inquiry’s demand to see Boris Johnson’s diaries and WhatsApps in full is under way in the High Court. The Cabinet Office rejected the demand, arguing it should not have to hand over material it does not consider relevant.
Covid inquiry chair Baroness Hallett says it should be up to her decide what is relevant. The government took the unprecedented step of bringing a judicial review of Baroness Hallett’s order.
It is the first time a government has mounted a legal challenge to an inquiry it set up itself.
Terms of Reference - UK Covid-19 Inquiry.
The Prime Minister has set the Terms of Reference for the UK Covid-19 Inquiry. This means that the Inquiry has been formally established under the Inquiries Act (2005) and is able to begin its work officially.
The inquiry’s Terms of Reference include:
The aims of the Inquiry are to:
- Examine the COVID-19 response and the impact of the pandemic in England, Wales,
Scotland and Northern Ireland, and produce a factual narrative account, including:
a) The public health response across the whole of the UK, including
i) preparedness and resilience;
ii) how decisions were made, communicated, recorded, and implemented;
iii) decision-making between the governments of the UK;
iv) the roles of, and collaboration between, central government, devolved
administrations, regional and local authorities, and the voluntary and
community sector;
v) the availability and use of data, research and expert evidence;
vi) legislative and regulatory control and enforcement;
for which, one would assume, the inquiry would require unrestricted access in order to see the full picture.
The government’s legal challenge to the Covid inquiry’s demand to see Boris Johnson’s diaries and WhatsApps in full has been heard in the High Court.
A ruling from the hearing, before Lord Justice Dingemans and Mr Justice Garnham, will be given at a later date.
Court to rule on Covid inquiry legal clash over Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages
The Cabinet Office is set to learn whether it has won its legal challenge to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry chairwoman’s request for Boris Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages, notebooks and diaries.
High Court judges are expected to hand down their decision over the Government’s judicial review of Baroness Heather Hallett’s order at 2.30pm on Thursday.
Will this be another slap for “Slippery” Sunak … 
Like a circle in a spiral, a wheel within a wheel…
Never ending on beginning,
On an ever-spinning reel
Like a snowball down a mountain,
Or a carnival balloon
Like a carousel that’s turning
Running rings around the moon??
Cabinet Ofice loses legal challenge over Covid Inquiry
The Cabinet Office has lost its legal challenge over the UK Covid-19 inquiry chairwoman’s request for Boris Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages, notebooks and diaries.
Hi
Great News.
I am fed up with the arrogance of our Politicians.
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/
Lord Justice Dingemans and Mr Justice Garnham have dismissed the government’s claim for judicial review.
The government has already responded to the High Court ruling, and said it will not appeal.
In a statement, it says the inquiry is “an important step to learn lessons from the pandemic and the government is cooperating in the spirit of candour and transparency”.
It calls the judgment a “sensible resolution” that will mean “the inquiry Chair is able to see the information she may deem relevant, but we can work together to have an arrangement that respects the privacy of individuals and ensures completely irrelevant information is returned and not retained”.
“We will comply fully with this judgment and will now work with the inquiry team on the practical arrangements," it adds.
Fine words butter no parsnips … 
Covid inquiry chair welcomes legal victory
A spokesperson for Baroness Hallett said the inquiry chair was "pleased the court has upheld her Section 21 notice.
“Following the court’s judgement, the inquiry has varied its order to require the disclosure of materials by 4pm on Monday 10 July.”
Fair enough … 
Inquiry chair will return ‘obviously irrelevant’ documents - judges
In their decision, Lord Justice Dingemans and Mr Justice Garnham said the chair of the inquiry would return documents she found to be “obviously irrelevant”.
The two judges said: "If, on examination, the chair of the inquiry rules that the document relates to a matter in question at the inquiry, and the person who has the document accepts this, that will be an end of the matter.
The two judges added: “To answer the practical issue which seems to have divided the Cabinet Office and the chair of the inquiry, the chair of the inquiry may examine the contested documents, and if the chair of the inquiry agrees that they are obviously irrelevant, will return them.”
What did the government want to redact?
The ruling gives us an indication of the type of messages the government is reluctant to hand over to the inquiry.
In a confidential submission to the court, the Cabinet Office flagged “messages about border incursions by one foreign state into the territory of another foreign state”, as well as “the trial of foreign nationals in the courts of another foreign state”.
The government argued that around one third of the messages were “unambiguously irrelevant” to the work of the inquiry.
In their ruling, the judges wrote “it might be noted that this meant that two-thirds of the messages were relevant”.
Quite … 
WhatsApp messages sent to and by Boris Johnson before May 2021 have still not been handed over to the Covid inquiry, because they are stuck on his phone and neither the government nor Mr Johnson’s team can access messages on the phone, which is being held by the ex-PM’s lawyers.
Apparently, UK police forces have sophisticated technology available which permits extraction of the data from any phone within minutes so why don’t the lawyers give the device to them to hack?
Boris Johnson still ‘can’t remember’ old iPhone password
BJ’s just taking the proverbial now, maybe in the hope that his lawyers have an “accident” with his phone and the data disappears … 
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“Forgot” the password? Cobblers, it’s so blatant, isn’t it?
And outrageous Disgusting he’s being allowed to get away with it 
Plebs and peasants go to jail for not giving thr court access to their phones……
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Technicians have been reluctant to turn on the old phone storing messages before May 2021, as the former PM wasn’t sure about the pass code. There were fears that getting it wrong could lead to the data being wiped. But the government has now found a record of his PIN number (1), paving the way for it to be accessed. Experts appointed by the government could now try to access the messages within the next 24 hours, BBC Newsnight understands.
The inquiry requested WhatsApp 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.
(1) That’s a stroke of luck …
Hi
Games being played by both sides.
Whats App can be accessed by GCHQ and many States intelligence agencies.
Boris Johnson says WhatsApps before May 2021 that are due to be handed to the Covid inquiry have now been downloaded.
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.”
It’s like getting blood out of a stone … 
The Cabinet Office has refused to disclose the cost of a failed legal battle with the Covid Inquiry over the release of Boris Johnson ’s WhatsApp messages.
It comes after the Tories took the highly unusual step of hauling the Inquiry to court in an attempt to block the release of the ex-PM’s unredacted messages, notebooks and diaries. Labour demanded Rishi Sunak ’s government “come clean about the shameful waste” of public money blown on the messy dispute.
The Government had argued the material, which is likely to contain messages between Mr Sunak and Mr Johnson and other top ministers, contained “irrelevant” material. But the High Court rejected the bid last month and ordered officials to hand over the information to Inquiry chairwoman Baroness Heather Hallett.
Responding to a Freedom of Information request from The Mirror, the Cabinet Office declined to come clean about the total cost of the legal fight to the taxpayer. Instead, officials argued the information is exempt from release because there is an intention to publish the information at a later - unspecified - date.
The response added: “After weighing up the competing public interest considerations, we consider it is reasonable in all the circumstances that the information held should be withheld from disclosure until the future date of publication… and that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure at this time”.
Obfuscation …
What a joke."It’s in our interest that the information held should be withheld from disclosure "would be the truth.
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Indeed it would … 
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