Boris: let Hallett decide

Former PM’s lawyers says Covid inquiry chair should see the documents she considers relevant

Boris Johnson’s lawyers have told the High Court he thinks that Baroness Hallett should have “all documents that she reasonably considers are potentially relevant to her ongoing investigation” into Covid-19.

That would be consistent with the objectives of the inquiry that he announced as prime minister in May 2021, he argues.

In written submissions, Johnson’s counsel Lord Pannick KC adopted arguments put by Hallett in response to a challenge brought by the government.

Lady Hallett

When the hearing opened this morning, Sir James Eadie KC, for the Cabinet Office, told Lord Justice Dingemans and Mr Justice Garnham that the government’s challenge had been brought “with considerable reluctance”. Ministers recognised that the inquiry’s terms of reference were broad and they wanted to make sure that everything relevant was disclosed.

But, said Eadie, the court was being asked to decide whether there was any limit to the material the inquiry could call for — and, if so, where that limit lay. Did it permit the disclosure of sensitive personal communications, he asked, including WhatsApp messages?

Hallett’s lawyers are arguing that the government’s judicial review claim should go no further, for two “elementary” reasons: