What the ruling over Boris Johnson’s Covid WhatsApps says about government communication

Downing Street has failed in attempts to keep the messages secret, writes Sean O’Grady. So what lessons can we take?

We await Johnson’s own oral evidence to the inquiry, under oath (PA)

The government has lost its legal battle with the Covid inquiry over its refusal to hand over Boris Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages, notebooks and diaries. The Cabinet Office launched legal action over Covid inquiry chair Baroness Hallett’s order to release the documents – arguing that the government should not have to hand over “unambiguously irrelevant” material. The tactic failed.

What happens now?

The WhatsApp messages and other material will be handed over to Hallett’s team on the official independent UK Covid-19 Inquiry. They were probably always going to end up there, or even in the public domain, because Johnson was, after initial resistance, determined to surrender them.