Government to take legal action against Covid inquiry over Johnson WhatsApps

Cabinet Office serves notice on inquiry chair at 4pm, the deadline she had set for it to hand over files

Ministers have launched an unprecedented high court attempt to avoid handing over Boris Johnson's unredacted WhatsApp messages and diaries to the government-commissioned public inquiry into the handling of Covid.

In a move immediately condemned by bereaved families and opposition MPs, the Cabinet Office told the inquiry, headed by the retired judge Heather Hallett, that there were important issues of principle" over passing on information that might not be relevant.