The deadline for the government to hand over Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages has been delayed by the COVID inquiry.

The inquiry had ordered the government to hand over the messages – alongside diary entries and notes – by 4pm on Tuesday 30 May.

The deadline has now set been 4pm on Thursday 1 June. The Cabinet Office asked for an extension to 5 June as they do not have access to Mr Johnson’s messages or notebooks, but this was rejected.

What is the COVID inquiry asking for?

  • Unredacted messages sent and received by Boris Johnson between 1 January 2020 and 24 February 2022.
  • Unredacted diaries for Mr Johnson between 1 January 2020 and 24 February 2022
  • Copies of 24 unredacted notebooks filled in by Mr Johnson between 1 January 2020 and 24 February 2022
  • Unredacted messages sent and received by adviser Henry Cook between 1 January 2020 and 24 February 2022.
  • The inquiry wants messages – even from group chats – about the government response to COVID, as well as contact with a list of certain experts, ministers, civil servants and advisers

This is despite saying in their original appeal against the order that there was “unambiguously irrelevant” in the redacted parts of messages sent to the inquiry.

When the Cabinet Office lodged the appeal on 15 May, it said Mr Johnson’s WhatsApp messages had not yet been received by the government.

A spokesman for the former prime minister said today that he had “no objection” to sending the material to the inquiry.

Mr Johnson has written to the Cabinet Office to demand the government requests in writing access to his messages and notes – which he says has not happened yet.

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If the government does not abide by the new deadline on Thursday, the chair of the inquiry – Baroness Hallett – has ordered that a statement be sent by a “senior civil servant” confirming the Cabinet Office does not have the requested information, as well as a chronology of the government’s contacts with Mr Johnson about the requests and whether the government has ever had the data.

Breaking a section 21 order could see the government face criminal proceedings, and there is also potential for a court battle over whether the information should be passed to the inquiry.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak spoke just before the inquiry’s announcement, in which he said the “government is carefully considering its position, but it is confident in the approach that it’s taking”.