Senior Tories express doubts over Covid inquiry legal challenge

Two senior Conservatives have expressed doubts over Rishi Sunak’s controversial decision to launch legal action against the public inquiry into the government’s handling of Covid-19.

The government announced on Thursday it would seek a judicial review of the demand by Heather Hallett, the chair of the inquiry, to see unredacted WhatsApp messages and notebooks from the former prime minister Boris Johnson.

Lord Barwell, the former MP for Croydon Central, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday: “We’ve already waited too long to set this inquiry up, and I think people want answers quickly.

Barwell’s comments came hours after Freeman told BBC One’s Question Time programme he believed the government would lose its legal challenge.

“I think it is really important that the rules of this are made clear and I absolutely have very little doubt that the courts will find that Baroness Hallett will decide what evidence she deems relevant, and then we’ll get on with it,” he said.

Hallett has demanded Johnson’s messages and notes in full, but the government wants to edit them first to remove anything that might have national security implications, or that officials deem to be “unambiguously irrelevant”.