The Covid inquiry is still waiting for key Boris Johnson WhatsApp messages for a seemingly unlikely reason – the former prime minister can’t remember the passcode to his old phone.
Social media reacted with dismay after The Times reported he is unable to recall the numbers to unlock the device, which he stopped using in May 2021.
Johnson cannot remember the passcode “with 100 per cent confidence” – and there are concerns that a botched attempt at unlocking the iPhone could lead to it being disabled, and erasing key messages from the start of the pandemic.
The government was supposed to have handed over all relevant material to the inquiry by 4pm on Monday.
Last month, the Cabinet Office revealed it had no WhatsApp communications for Johnson before May 2021 as the result of a “well-publicised security breach” – specifically the Popbitch website revealing at that time that his number had been publicly available online for 15 years.
Among the reactions on social media, many wondered how someone displaying this level of incompetence could ever have been prime minister.
Last week, the government lost its legal bid to block Johnson’s unredacted documents being given to the Covid inquiry.
Baroness Hallett, the chair of the official inquiry into the pandemic, had issued a legal order to force the Cabinet Office to hand over the evidence.
But the government opposed the move and launched a judicial review, arguing some of the material was “unambiguously irrelevant”.
In a ruling last Thursday, the High Court sided with the inquiry.
The government said it would “comply fully” with the judgement, and Baroness Hallett gave the Cabinet Office until 4pm on Monday to hand over all Johnson’s messages.