THE High Court has ruled that Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages and notebooks must be handed over to the Covid-19 Inquiry.

The decision supports inquiry chair Baroness Hallett’s decision to order the government to release the former prime minister’s documents in May. 

The Cabinet Office had mounted an expensive publicly funded judicial review against her Section 21 notice, claiming some of the content was “unambiguously irrelevant.”

Deborah Doyle, spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, blasted the “desperate waste of time and money.”

“A successful inquiry could save thousands of lives in the event of another pandemic and it's a disgrace that the Cabinet Office is trying to obstruct it,” she said.

“Any attempt to appeal this decision or hinder its work further would be utterly shameful.”

In its ruling, the court found Baroness Hallett had not been “irrational” in making the order, as the Inquiries Act provided a provision for parties to disagree with a request for documentation.

“The chair of the inquiry may examine the documents, without prejudice to the objection to produce them and determine that claim, returning those ‘obviously irrelevant’ documents,” it said.

The ruling added that any such document ruled irrelevant would not be retained by the inquiry as this would not be fair and a waste of time and resources.

Labour called the ruling a “humiliating defeat” and accused the Tories of wasting time and taxpayers’ money on a “doomed” legal battle.

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “While the rest of the country battles the cost-of-living crisis, Rishi Sunak has been wasting time and taxpayers’ money on doomed legal battles to withhold evidence from the Covid Inquiry.  

“After this latest humiliating defeat, the Prime Minister must accept the ruling and comply with the inquiry’s requests for evidence in full.”

The Cabinet Office said it will “comply fully” with the “sensible resolution” and “we can work together to have an arrangement that respects the privacy of individuals and ensures completely irrelevant information is returned and not retained.”

The material must now be handed to the inquiry by 4pm on Monday.

Mr Johnson has backed the Covid Inquiry’s bid to see his unredacted messages, which may contain information embarrassing to his successor Rishi Sunak.

In June the former prime minister said he had decided to bypass the Cabinet Office by sending all of them directly to the inquiry.