Lord Bethell, who was a health minister under Boris Johnson during the pandemic, said the former PM’s messages would mostly have consisted of ‘fluffy material’ eleanormia reports
Covid Inquiry: Ex-health minister insists WhatsApps were mostly about coffee not key decisions
Lord Bethell, who was a health minister under Boris Johnson during the pandemic, said the former PM’s messages would mostly have consisted of ‘fluffy material’ByA health minister under Boris Johnson during the pandemic has said large decisions were not made over WhatsApp groups and the messages were mainly about coffee orders, in response to the Covid inquiry row.
Lord Bethell said that it was “plain wrong” to suggest that all messages sent during the pandemic were relevant to the inquiry, arguing that they mostly would have consisted of “fluffy material” that did not include “meaningful decisions”.programme, he said: “The decision-making took place through the red box system with formal submissions by officials minuted meetings between ministers and officials and an extremely well-organised Whitehall machine.
The Conservative peer added that most of the WhatsApp messages sent by ministers during the pandemic were “about coffee and who needs to have what kind of coffee for what kind of meeting”, while others were used to share data related to “the spread of the disease or on the progress of the vaccine”.
The Government has entered into a legal battle with the Covid inquiry, which is due to begin hearings on Tuesday, over demands to hand over all unredacted WhatsApp messages sent by senior ministers at the height of the pandemic., and other former and current figures in Government, together with officials from the inquiry team, so the material could be redacted under a joint agreement., challenging the inquiry’s demands for disclosure of the messages in full.
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