UK PM Sunak hasn't shared WhatsApp messages to Covid inquiry, citing lack of backups: Reports
File image of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak outside 10, Downing Street
Rishi Sunak, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer and current UK Prime Minister, has informed the COVID-19 inquiry that he is unable to provide WhatsApp messages from his time as Chancellor during the pandemic, citinghisfailure to backthese messages, as reported by The Guardian.
He stated in his witness statement that he no longer has access to these messages because he changed his phone on several occasions.
This development coincides with the launch of the second phase of the COVID-19 inquiry, led by Baroness Heather Hallett. This phase, titled "Core UK decision-making and political governance," will scrutinise key decision-making processes in Westminster between January 2020 and February 2022, covering the period when England lifted its final Covid restrictions.
Also read |UK nurses accused of tying Sikh man's beard with gloves, leaving him in urine: Report exposes
Parallels with Boris Johnson's situation
This situation echoes the delay witnessed when former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was asked to provide his WhatsApp messages from his leadership during the pandemic.
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Johnson's failure to remember the passwordfor his old mobile phone led to the involvement of technical experts to recover the messages.
As reported by The Guardian, Sunak's statement to the inquiry reads: "Having changed my phone a number of times over the last three years, I do not have access to the WhatsApp messages that I sent or received during the relevant time, and neither were the messages backed up. My expectation would be that if the officials on those groups had considered that any information being communicated by WhatsApp message needed to be preserved to form part of the official HMT record, then those officials would have taken steps to ensure that happened."
Earlier this year, the Cabinet Office sought an exemption from providing information and messages that it deemed irrelevant to the inquiry's objectives.Subsequently, the UK government initiated a legal challenge, but in July, the High Court ruled against the government, affirming that the requested documents should be submitted.
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Criticism from Liberal Democrats
Daisy Cooper, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, criticised Rishi Sunak's failure to provide his WhatsApp messages as "a disgrace."
She characterised this as a recurring pattern seen in Conservative responses to inquiries and urgedfortransparency. Cooper accused Sunak of contributing to a series of cover-ups within the Conservative Party.
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