THE Tory government’s “reliance” on WhatsApp to carry out official business came under fresh criticism today after the app was hit by a two-hour service outage. 

People trying to send and receive messages began reporting issues just before 8am on Tuesday. However, by around 10am the service had returned for many users. 

Meta, which owns the app, said it had fixed the issue but did not explain the cause of the problem. 

The app, which has around two billion users globally, is popular among MPs, who were left without their go-to communication tool on the day new PM Rishi Sunak came to power.

The dominance of the app in Westminster decision-making, especially during the pandemic, has proved controversial. 

Last year, the government was taken to court by campaign group the Citizens over the use of self-destructive messages, with campaigners and journalists arguing that the app was being used to avoid scrutiny of decision-making processes.

This is because deleted messages cannot be retrieved through freedom of information requests, nor stored in the national archives at a later date. 

Investigative reporter Iain Overton, among those who brought last year’s legal challenge, said Wednesday’s service outage also demonstrates how the use of private Whatsapp messages could pose a risk to national security. 

“If His Majesty’s government is so reliant on a foreign-owned messaging system that is prone to outages, how can anyone be assured that such a platform will survive a true catastrophe, such as a war or a concerted cyber-attack?” he asked. 

“It’s not only bad for transparency, it’s also deeply worrying for the ability of government to function in a disaster.”

The High Court ruled that MPs use of WhatsApp did not break the law.