WhatsApp with the Covid Inquiry?

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2023

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Westminster watchers are used to the long tails of public inquiries. Baroness Hallett’s investigation of the pandemic will be no different, with hers due to take evidence until 2026. Her first big hurdle is the cache of government WhatsApps that have long been withheld by Number 10. With a legal challenge looming, what do the messages contain that has pushed their publication to the deadline? Former advisor to Sajid Javid, Salma Shah, and the Independent’s Paul Waugh join Catherine Haddon and Tim Durrant to discuss the unprecedented scale of the Inquiry. Plus, with an election not far off, Rishi Sunak is in search of his own strategy, as he attempts to clean up the messes his predecessors left behind. Can he activate the machinery of Whitehall in time to make his own mark on Number 10? Produced by Andrew Harrison and Alex Rees of Podmasters for the IFG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this episode of Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government.
0:14.6	I'm Catherine Hadden, IFG Programme Director and today's podcast presenter.
0:19.5	While Parliament is in recess.
0:21.0	IFG colleagues are off on half-term holidays,
0:23.5	so of course an almighty political and legal row was bound to rear its head.
0:28.3	The battle between the government and the COVID inquiry
0:30.5	broke into the open last week,
0:32.0	with news that the COVID inquiry chair was threatening legal action
0:35.3	if the Cabinet Office did not produce unredacted versions of Boris Johnson's diaries, notebooks and WhatsApp. So what is going on here?
0:44.2	Why has the government been battling with the chair of the inquiry it set up? What were they trying
0:49.1	to achieve? And what does this mean for an inquiry which is going to start oral evidence
0:53.1	in a few weeks' time?
0:55.8	And the COVID inquiry, Rao, may have dominated the news, but it isn't what Rishi Sunak would
1:00.0	want us to be discussing. Six months into his premiership, a year to 18 months away from a general
1:05.6	election, Sunak has got some political wins under his belt, but it's still a long way from
1:10.7	restoring his party's fortunes. What does this mean for how he is governing? Is it a Sunak has got some political wins under his belt, but it's still a long way from restoring
1:11.1	his party's fortunes. What does this mean for how he is governing? Is it possible for Sunak to
1:16.2	plan and execute his own government program in two years, or will his government remain at the
1:21.7	mercy of his predecessors? To discuss all of this, I'm joined by IFG Programme Director Tim Durant. Hi Tim. Hi, Tim.
1:28.8	Hi, Kath.
1:29.4	And I'm delighted to be joined by Salma Shah, former special advisor to Sajid Javid and founder of Cracken Strategy. Hi, Selma. Thanks for coming on.
1:36.9	Hello. And also joining us today is Paul War, chief political commentator for the I paper. Hi, Paul.
	...

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