Surprising turn of events: Johnson hands over Whatsapp messages to government Italy wants to take back refugees from Switzerland

The dispute over Whatsapp messages from former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson took a surprising turn on Wednesday. As a spokesman for the former prime minister said, Johnson handed over all WhatsApp messages and notebooks requested by an investigative body to the government’s Cabinet Office.

With this, Johnson is putting pressure on the government of sitting Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to pass on the data uncensored, as requested by the Corona Commission of Inquiry. A deadline that actually expired at 5pm CEST on Tuesday had previously been extended by 48 hours to Thursday. The Conservative government had refused to pass on the data in its entirety, but also claimed not to have it.

The independent commission of inquiry headed by former judge Lady Heather Hallett is tasked with reviewing Johnson’s controversial approach to the corona pandemic. The current Prime Minister Sunak was the Minister of Finance at the time. It is therefore speculated that he and other cabinet members fear that Johnson’s Whatsapp correspondence could also contain compromising material for them. Hallett had threatened the government with criminal consequences if the documents were not handed over.

It has long been an open secret that important agreements within the government are made via Whatsapp in London itself. Content of more than 100,000 Whatsapp messages from former Health Minister Matt Hancock only became public in March and the ex-minister needed an explanation. A journalist who worked as a ghostwriter for Hancock had forwarded the news to The Daily Telegraph newspaper. (sda/dpa)