Boris Johnson news latest: ‘Nonsense’ not to hand over WhatsApp messages to Covid Inquiry, senior Tory says

The authorities is withholding Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages from the official Covid inquiry to defend Rishi Sunak and different serving ministers, Archie Mitchell stories.

The Cabinet Office is resisting requests from inquiry chair Lady Hallett to hand over the previous prime minister’s unredacted messages and diaries from the pandemic.

It fears that giving in to the previous choose would imply all different proof from ministers, together with Mr Sunak himself, would have to be submitted with out redactions, The Guardian reported.

The authorities argues it’s opposing Lady Hallett’s request to defend the privateness of ministers and officers.

The historian Sir Anthony Seldon, who lately chronicled Mr Johnson’s time in No 10 stated it was a “easy no brainer” for his Covid-era messages to be launched to the inquiry, Kate Devlin stories.

“This occasion was so seismic and the premiership of Boris Johnson was so catastrophic, we now have to get out the total info,” he informed TalkTV.

Mr Johnson has stated he could be glad to hand over the messages.

A cupboard minister has insisted the federal government has “nothing to hide” within the row over Boris Johnson’s Whatsapps, Kate Devlin stories.

Mel Stride stated that ministers understood the significance of the Covid inquiry.

He informed Times radio: “Certainly the government has absolutely nothing to hide. And in fact, over the last few months, we’ve released 55,000 different documents, I believe eight witness statements and corporate witness statements, etc. to the inquiry. There is this issue over the request for various WhatsApps from various individuals, which is a matter for the individuals and also for the Cabinet Office…I wouldn’t want to be trying to sort of prejudge where all of that will land.”

He added: “The government totally gets the importance (of the probe). And that’s why we set up this inquiry, of getting to the bottom of the important lessons there are to learn from what happened because of course, many of us were deeply, deeply affected by the pandemic and the lockdown and the response to it.”

Reports that synthetic intelligence (AI) poses an “existential threat” to humanity are “concernig”, Rishi Sunak has stated – Archie Mitchell stories.

The prime minister highlighted advantages of AI together with the potential to uncover new antibiotics. But Mr Sunak added that any developments within the subject should be carried out “in a way that is safe and secure”.

“That’s why I met last week with the CEOs of major AI companies to discuss what are the guardrails that we need to put in place, what’s the type of regulation that should be put in place to keep us safe,” he stated.

Mr Sunak stated: “People might be involved by the stories that AI poses an existential threat like pandemics or nuclear wars – I need them to be reassured that the federal government is trying very fastidiously at this.

“And I feel the UK can play a management position as a result of finally, we’re solely going to grapple with this drawback and clear up it if we work collectively not simply with the businesses, however with nations world wide. It’s one thing that I’ve already been discussing with different leaders on the G7 summit the opposite week, I’ll be doing that once more once I go to the US very quickly.”

The prime minister was responding to a warning from the heads of two of the main AI corporations in regards to the existential menace posed by superior synthetic intelligence.

DeepMind and OpenAI chief executives Demis Hassabis and Sam Altman pledged their help to a brief assertion revealed by the Centre for AI Safety, which claimed that regulators and lawmakers ought to take the “severe risks” extra significantly.

“Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” the statement learn.

The Covid-19 Inquiry introduced yesterday that the ultimate hearings on the general public inquiry gained’t happen till the summer time of 2026. It means ministers gained’t face questions on care house deaths till after the final election.

Work and pensions secretary Mel Stride defended the time the inquiry will take, saying it was a “massive task”, Adam Forrest stories.

He informed LBC: “I think it’s right that we have a really thorough and detailed examination of the big questions that there are to ask about both the pandemic and the government’s response to it.”

Mr Stride added: “It is a massive task … there’s a huge volume of information that will have to be gone through, so these things do take time.”

Labour’s plans to ban ex-ministers from lobbying the federal government for 5 years after leaving workplace are “encouraging” however want to go additional, lobbyists have stated.

Along with the lobbying ban, the celebration is contemplating a five-point plan that will see former ministers fined for breaking lobbying guidelines and a brand new Integrity and Ethics Commission with the ability to implement requirements throughout public life.

Alastair McCapra, CEO of the lobbyists’ commerce affiliation the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), welcomed the plans however urged Labour to do extra.

He stated: “It is encouraging to see the Labour Party addressing the difficulty of lobbying that has tarnished our politics for therefore lengthy.

“Their proposed five-point plan and Integrity and Ethics Commission is a big step in the proper course and rightly focuses instant issues on the actions of these inside Parliament and people who have lately left.”

A minister was reduce off mid-flow for “reading from a long list of notes” in an interview with the BBC, Archie Mitchell stories.

Work and pensions secretary Mel Stride was reeling off a slew of help measures put in place by the federal government, together with value of residing funds, a residing wage in crease and the power worth assure.

After ploughing by way of 5 bulletins, Today host Martha Kearney interrupted.

“Okay, yes, I can see you are reading from a long list and we may not have time for you to go through all of it,” she stated.

You can watch a clip from the minister’s interview beneath:

Senior Tory MP Caroline Nokes stated the “reluctance” by Rishi Sunak’s authorities to present the Boris Johnson’s WhatsApps and notebooks the Covid inquiry “seems a nonsense”, Adam Forrest stories.

The chair of the equalities committee stated it was essential for the general public inquiry to look at as a lot proof as doable.

Ms Nokes informed TalkTV that Covid inquiry chairwoman Lady Hallett “doesn’t look like a woman who’s about to roll over … probably rightly so”. She stated could be “less pain for the government if they hand [the material] over quickly”

Labour’s shadow well being secretary Wes Streeting has stated Rishi Sunak seems “really slippery” over the refusal to hand over requested recordsdata to the Covid inquiry, Adam Forrest stories.

Mr Streeting informed Sky News:“I think the prime minister looks really slippery.”

“He says he wants the government to cooperate with the inquiry but the government has been withholding information the inquiry has asked for.”

The Labour frontbencher added: “One minute the government says the messages they have are immaterial; the next minute they’re saying they don’t exist. Which is it?”

The Scottish authorities wants to “quickly re-evaluate” its deliberate deposit return scheme (DRS) to see if it might probably nonetheless go forward within the face of Westminster makes an attempt to “sabotage” it, the minister accountable for it has stated.

Scottish round financial system minister Lorna Slater claimed the UK authorities’s pressured removing of glass bottles from the scheme north of the border is a “real roadblock” to it.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme on Wednesday, she stated: “We’ve hit an actual roadblock with the UK Government, at this very late hour, altering their minds and saying we are able to’t have glass within the system when companies all over Scotland have put in already the funding to having glass within the system.

“We now want to shortly re-evaluate, speak to all the companies in Scotland who’ve made this funding and work out how we go ahead from right here.”