THE Covid-19 public inquiry will scrutinise Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages as part of its investigation into the government’s handling of the pandemic. 

Lead counsel to the inquiry Hugo Keith KC said thousands of documents had been requested to inform the probe, including the WhatsApp conversations of the ex-PM and other senior officials, as well as Cabinet ministers and notes of written and oral advice to ministers.

Speaking at a preliminary hearing of the probe yesterday, Mr Keith said there would be “particular scrutiny” of decisions made by the former PM, the Cabinet and political, scientific and medical advisers in the three months leading up to the March 2020 lockdown. 

The hearings, due to start next summer, will examine whether lives could have been saved by earlier lockdowns, Mr Keith said, adding that the impact of the pandemic will be felt for “decades to come,” worldwide and in the UK. 

The lead counsel said the inquiry’s job would also be to ask whether the government’s claims of “following the science” was a “fair reflection of the actual decision-making.”

More than 200 scientists, including all those involved in the Sage group and others in the Independent Sage group — highly critical of the government’s response — have been asked to give evidence. 

Ministers’ use of WhatsApp to conduct official business, particularly during the pandemic, has been criticised by transparency campaigners and journalists who argue that the use of the app makes it more difficult to scrutinise decision-making among senior politicians.