Key events
The Liberal Democrats have announced that they will table a humble address motion in the commons next week calling for “all material” requested by the Covid 19 inquiry to be released by the government.
“People are sick and tired of the Government’s attempts to duck scrutiny by refusing to hand over these messages in full,” said the party’s spokesperson, Christine Jardine.
Speaking with Sky News, Jardine denied her party is “playing politics” and said bereaved families deserve full transparency.
“Rishi Sunak promised to govern with integrity and accountability, instead it’s just more chaos and cover-ups,” she said.
Cabinet Office has made ‘bad mistake’ refusing to submit files to Covid inquiry, says Tory peer
Good morning and welcome to the UK politics live blog. We begin with news that the government has made a “bad mistake” by refusing to submit Boris Johnson’s unredacted documents to the Covid 19 inquiry, according to former Downing Street chief of staff Gavin Barwell.
“Some of the (WhatsApp) messages might be a bit embarrassing but, nonetheless, I think they’re making a bad mistake,” Barwell told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
The remarks come as ministers have launched an unprecedented high court attempt to avoid handing over Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages and diaries to the government-commissioned public inquiry.
Johnson said on Wednesday he had given unredacted material to the Cabinet Office and urged it to share it with the inquiry. But the department is concerned this would set a precedent that could lead to the inquiry’s lead demanding the WhatsApp messages of serving ministers – not least the prime minister, Rishi Sunak.
“It’s important that we get to the truth. And if we can’t see how the Government made the decisions it made, how it got to the point that it did, then people are not going to have confidence in the outcome of the inquiry.”
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