Johnson ‘mad’ if he did not realise Covid WhatsApps would become public – Case

The country’s top civil servant said Boris Johnson was “mad” if he did not believe his private WhatsApp messages would become public as part of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.

It comes as a former top aide to Mr Johnson suggested he was worried about leaks from the heart of Government, amid questions about why he had turned on the “disappearing message function” on a WhatsApp group in April 2021.

Martin Reynolds also made repeated reference to former chief adviser Dominic Cummings – due to appear before the inquiry on Tuesday – and the “unusual dynamic” he brought to Downing Street.

The extent and nature of decision making through the messaging app has become a key plank of Lady Hallett’s probe, with the comments about Mr Johnson made in exchanges between Cabinet Secretary Simon Case and Mr Reynolds.

Mr Reynolds, appearing before the inquiry on Monday, said Mr Johnson had perhaps not realised his WhatsApp messages would enter the public domain.

In correspondence shared with the inquiry from December 2021, Mr Case said: “PM is mad if he doesn’t think his WhatsApps will become public via Covid inquiry – but he was clearly not in the mood for that discussion tonight! We’ll have that battle in the new year”.

Mr Reynolds responded: “Agreed – thanks for your help.”

The former top aide to Mr Johnson made headlines after it emerged he arranged a gathering in the No 10 garden on May 20 2020 when leaving home without a reasonable excuse was banned.

Dubbed “Party Marty” after reports of the invitation emerged, Mr Reynolds was subsequently forced out amid outrage over the partygate scandal.

I cannot recall, but I imagine that the prime minster – I’m afraid I can only speculate – but I imagine he hadn’t realised that all of his WhatApps would become public via the Covid inquiry

Giving evidence to the inquiry on Monday, Mr Reynolds was asked by Hugo Keith KC, lead counsel to the inquiry, what that “battle” referenced in the messages was about.

Mr Reynolds said: “I cannot recall, but I imagine that the prime minister – I’m afraid I can only speculate – but I imagine he hadn’t realised that all of his WhatApps would become public via the Covid inquiry.”

During the hearing, Mr Reynolds also suggested that he had turned on the “disappearing message function” on the WhatsApp group titled “PM Updates” on April 15 2021 because of concerns about potential leaks.

“It could, for example, have been because I was worried of someone screenshotting or using some of the exchanges and leaking them.”

Former Number 10 director of communications Lee Cain will give evidence later, as well as former private secretary to the PM for public services Imran Shafi.

Mr Reynolds offered a picture of a Government that, after Mr Johnson’s 2019 general election, was “very different” and acknowledged that there had been a “bedding down of new working arrangements”.

He told the hearing: “There had been a very big shift in overall focus pre-election on Brexit and the Brexit negotiations and that had been … the overriding focus of that entire period for three or four months, and that had been concluded, the election had happened and there did feel like there had been a significant turning of the page.

“Because with a majority of 80 or whatever it was, there was a sense that the Government had a five or 10-year time horizon to look at and there was a really strong focus on the forward agenda.”

But he also pointed to the influence of Mr Cummings, referencing a so-called “shitlist” reportedly drawn up on civil servants.

“There was, I think, quite a bit of unease in the civil service around, and excuse my language, the so-called shitlist of people who were thought to be risks in what was perceived to be a potentially more muscular approach to the civil service.”

Mr Reynolds also said there had been an “unusual dynamic” under Mr Cummings.

“In my view, he was the most empowered chief of staff Downing Street has seen and was the person whose writ ruled, who was able to drive things through the machine in the way I suspect few other chiefs of staff have done.”

The former top aide rejected a suggestion by Mr Cummings that he personally had been “too deferential” to the prime minister, but appeared to acknowledge that there could have been better preparation for the spread of the virus.

“With the benefit of hindsight, it does appear that we should have been far more vigorously looking and testing out arrangements for what was coming, and that would arguably have made a big difference when the crisis hit,” he said.

Lady Hallett, beginning Monday’s proceedings, said she wanted to address reports “suggesting that materials confidential to the inquiry and the core participants have been shared with the media”.

She said: “I wish to remind all those involved in the inquiry as core participants and witnesses of the need to maintain the confidentiality of the materials with which they have been provided unless and until they are used in the inquiry proceedings”.