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Covid inquiry: Boris Johnson aide Martin Reynolds set WhatsApp group to auto-delete [1]
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Date: 2023-10
A top Boris Johnson aide changed the settings on a senior government WhatsApp group to delete messages automatically while the official Covid inquiry was being organised, the inquiry has heard.
The WhatsApp group, called ‘PM Updates’, contained Boris Johnson’s closest advisers and discussions within the group touched on key Covid policies – such as shielding the clinically vulnerable, and the Department of Health and Social Care’s plans for responding to the pandemic.
But as plans for the inquiry took shape, Martin Reynolds – Johnson’s principal private secretary at the time – set the group so that messages sent would vanish after a period of time. It means potentially key discussions that took place are unavailable as evidence.
Hugo Keith, counsel to the inquiry, told Reynolds: “This was hugely important information. You were telling the prime minister, daily, hourly, by minute, information he needed to know.”
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He asked: “Why did you turn on the disappearing message function around the time that the PM announced a public inquiry into the Covid pandemic?"
Reynolds said: “I can guess or I can speculate, but I cannot recall exactly why I did so… I don’t believe it was intended to prevent the inquiry from having sight of this.”
And he admitted that discussions about establishing the official inquiry were well under way when he took this decision to automatically delete messages.
Reynolds was reminded of Johnson’s own statements to Parliament when announcing the Covid inquiry in May 2021.
Johnson had said: “This inquiry must be able to look at the events of the last year in the cold light of day and identify the key issues that will make a difference for the future, free to scrutinise every document.”
Disappearing messages were introduced by WhatsApp in 2020, allowing users to set messages to automatically delete after a certain period of time.
Concerns have been raised that the setting could allow official records to be lost. Although the disappearing WhatsApp messages setting is currently permitted for use on UK government phones and other devices, it is expected that important information should be retained and recorded.
In other WhatsApp messages shown to the inquiry, cabinet secretary Simon Case is seen discussing his views on the ‘Partygate’ probe overseen by senior civil servant Sue Gray.
The messages, sent to Martin Reynolds, came just a day after Case had to recuse himself from leading the Partygate inquiry when it emerged parties had taken place in his office.
Case told Reynolds he had been “dragged through the mud by association. Am flipping pissed off deep down (like the PM) that I am being attacked for something which I wasn’t even involved in…I have to carry the can as the boss.”
This week, the inquiry will hear evidence from another former senior adviser to Boris Johnson, Dominic Cummings, as well as former head of communication for Number 10, Lee Cain. This is the fourth week of the second module, which is scrutinising political governance and decision-making during the pandemic.
The inquiry continues. openDemocracy is fundraising to pay reporters to cover every day of the public hearings. Please support us by donating here.
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https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/covid-19-inquiry-disappearing-whatsapp-martin-reynolds-boris-johnson/
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