Boris Johnson latest news: Sunak under pressure as ex-PM urges government to hand over WhatsApps

Boris Johnson has handed his unredacted WhatsApp messages and notebooks to the Cabinet Office, as the former prime minister called on the Government to “urgently disclose” the material to the Covid-19 inquiry.

The Cabinet Office had claimed it did not have access to Mr Johnson’s WhatsApp messages and private notebooks, which were demanded by inquiry chairwoman Baroness Hallett.

Ministers have so far objected to the release of “unambiguously irrelevant” material.

The inquiry has set a deadline of 4pm on Thursday to hand over Mr Johnson’s messages, notebooks and official diaries, having granted a 48-hour extension on Tuesday.

Labour is danger of losing votes for being too pro-Brexit, new polling suggests – as Keir Starmer faces growing calls from within his party to shift its EU policy.

New polling seen by The Independent shows that Tory voters would be significantly more likely to back Labour if the opposition committed to reversing the hardest parts of the government’s Brexit settlement.

Senior pollsters say Labour could start shedding votes to the Lib Dems or Greens if it is seen as insufficiently pro-European.

The Cabinet Office has had access to Mr Johnson’s messages and notebooks for several months, his spokesman has claimed.

And the ex-PM would immediately disclose it directly to the inquiry if asked, the spokesman added.

The Cabinet Office had claimed it did not have access to the WhatsApp messages and private notebooks.

“While Mr Johnson understands the Government’s position, and does not seek to contradict it, he is perfectly happy for the inquiry to have access to this material in whatever form it requires,” the spokesman said.

“Mr Johnson co-operated with the inquiry in full from the beginning of this process and continues to do so.

“Indeed, he established the inquiry. He looks forward to continuing to assist the inquiry with its important work.”

Former Supreme Court justice Lord Sumption also said attempts to withhold the messages were likely to fail – saying he did not think the Cabinet Office’s arguments would “cut much ice” in the courts.

Lord Sumption said that under the law the “ultimate judge” of whether the material ought to be disclosed was the inquiry chair. “I frankly can’t see the courts quashing her decision,” he told the BBC’s World At One.

Arguing that going to court would be a “political mistake”, he added: “They are not going to succeed in a judicial review so that all they will achieve in resisting is to make it look like they are hiding something.”

Senior Tory William Wragg, chair of the public administration and constitutional affairs committee, also urged the government to back down. “If the inquiry requests documents and info – then whoever it has asked should comply,” he told the BBC.

Civil servants are on a collision course with Conservative MPs after threatening to strike over the government’s Rwanda plan and small boats bill.

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, representing workers at the Home Office and Border Force, said demoralised staff fear being forced to break the law and could “explore” industrial action.

But senior Tories said a threat to walk out over the key parts of the government’s asylum policy was “appalling” and “unacceptable”.

Adam Forrest and Lizzie Dearden report:

Just Stop Oil protesters have been arrested for failing to move out of the road in Parliament Square in their latest slow march.

The group said 10 supporters, including a wheelchair-dependent, retired cook and members of Christian Climate Action, were detained by police on Wednesday.

They were among a larger group of 56 activists who were staging a slow march near the Houses of Parliament, following earlier protest action in west London when the A4 was blocked during rush hour.

JSO has held demonstrations every day since April 24, and has pledged to carry on indefinitely until the Government stops granting new licences for gas, coal and oil.

Those arrested included grandmother Ari Rox, 74, from Exeter, who has post-polio syndrome and uses a wheelchair, along with her carer for the day, Larch Maxey, who were removed from Parliament Square in a taxi.

Mr Maxey told the PA news agency the government should do the “honourable thing” and stop issuing the new licences for fossil fuels, adding: “We’re here at the heart of democracy asking for that demand to be met.”

Pictures posted on social media earlier showed protesters gathered at the square:

The historian Sir Anthony Seldon, who recently chronicled Mr Johnson’s time in No 10 said it was a “simple no brainer” for his Covid-era messages to be released to the inquiry, Kate Devlin reports.

“This event was so seismic and the premiership of Boris Johnson was so catastrophic, we have to get out the full facts,” he told TalkTV.

Mr Johnson has said he would be happy to hand over the messages.

A cabinet minister has insisted the government has “nothing to hide” in the row over Boris Johnson’s Whatsapps, Kate Devlin reports.

Mel Stride said that ministers understood the importance of the Covid inquiry.

He told Times radio: “Certainly the government has absolutely nothing to hide. And in fact, over the last few months, we’ve released 55,000 different documents, I believe eight witness statements and corporate witness statements, etc. to the inquiry. There is this issue over the request for various WhatsApps from various individuals, which is a matter for the individuals and also for the Cabinet Office…I wouldn’t want to be trying to sort of prejudge where all of that will land.”

He added: “The government totally gets the importance (of the probe). And that’s why we set up this inquiry, of getting to the bottom of the important lessons there are to learn from what happened because of course, many of us were deeply, deeply affected by the pandemic and the lockdown and the response to it.”