The government has lost its legal bid to block Boris Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages, notebooks and diaries 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 on Thursday, the High Court sided with the inquiry. The government has said it will “comply fully” with the judgment.
The documents are likely to include text conversations between Johnson and a host of government figures – including Rishi Sunak, who was chancellor during the pandemic.
Johnson himself had said he was “more than happy” for the inquiry to have his messages and had threatened to deliver them himself.
It is highly unusual for a government to take legal action against an inquiry that it set up.
Lib Dem Cabinet Office spokesperson Christine Jardine said: “This is a victory for transparency and a humiliating defeat for this Conservative government.
“Rishi Sunak should have never wasted taxpayers’ money trying to dodge scrutiny and hide the truth.
“The government must now agree to comply fully with the Covid inquiry’s requests. Bereaved families deserve better than this endless game of smoke and mirrors."
The inquiry has already begun taking evidence from senior figures and has heard from pandemic-era health secretary Matt Hancock, former prime minister David Cameron and ex-Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon.