UK government loses legal bid to keep Boris Johnson's messages from COVID-19 inquiry

A U.K. court has rejected the British government’s request to keep former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s unredacted WhatsApp messages and diaries from being made public at an official COVID-19 inquiry. The Cabinet Office took the unusual step of bringing a legal challenge after the retired judge chairing the inquiry into Britain’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic ordered the Conservative government to release full copies of Johnson’s documents. Government officials argued the documents and messages were “unambiguously irrelevant” to how the government handled COVID-19. The judges who ruled in the Cabinet Office’s case on Thursday said Johnson’s diaries and notebooks were “very likely to contain information about decision-making” relating to the pandemic.