Covid inquiry live: Boris Johnson described as ‘mad’ by top civil servant in WhatsApp message

Boris Johnson was not given any information about Covid by officials between the 14th and 24th of February, during schools’ half term break, Archie Mitchell reports.

Hugo Keith KC, the Covid inquiry’s lead counsel, said there were no Cobra emergency meetings, and no books or notes sent to the then PM during the time period.

“Do you or do you not know the February half term fell around that period in February of 2020?” Mr Keith asked Mr Reynolds.

“Why is nothing been done in terms of keeping the prime minister in the loop for those 10 days?” he added.

Downing Street has said ministers and officials are allowed to “disappear” their WhatsApp messages, Adam Forrest reports.

It comes as the Covid inquiry heard that Boris Johnson’s aide Martin Reynolds turned on the “disappearing messages” function in a WhatsApp group in April 2021 – just a couple of weeks before the inquiry was announced. Mr Reynolds said he could not recall why he did so.

Rishi Sunak’s official spokesman said: “The updated guidance from March [says] the use of disappearing messages is permitted, as civil servants and ministerial private offices are required to record to record and log official decisions and views for their record where it is relevant and appropriate.”

Asked if No 10 thought the current guidance was sufficient, the PM’s spokesman said: “Yes.”

Britain’s top civil servant said he was “pissed off deep down” after having to step down from the Partygate inquiry amid reports he attended a lockdown-breaching drinks event, Archie Mitchell reports.

Simon Case said he was being “dragged through the mud by association” for “something trivial which I was not even involved in”.

In messages revealed during the official Covid inquiry, he told Boris Johnson’s former principal private secretary: “Just hope it all goes away quickly.”

The BBC had to apologise after Martin Reynolds unexpectedly swore during the official Covid inquiry, Archie Mitchell reports.

The broadcaster cut Mr Reynolds’s testimony and apologised to viewers after he described said “unease in the civil service around the so-called ‘s*** list’ of people who were thought to be at risk in what was perceived to be a much more muscular approach to the civil service”.

Presenter Lukwesa Burak said: “We just want to apologise if you have been following this, there was some language there – he did apologise beforehand – making reference to a term that was used and included as part of this inquiry.”

Reynolds tells the inquiry there was “unease” around the so-called “sh*tlist” of civil servants.

It came amid a discussion about the internal workings of Downing Street and the Cabinet Office ahead of the pandemic.

“There was, I think, quite a bit of unease in the civil service around, and excuse my language, the so-called shitlist of people who were thought to be risks in what was perceived to be a potentially more muscular approach to the civil service.”

Mr Reynolds also said there had been an “unusual dynamic around Dominic Cummings”.

“In my view, he was the most empowered chief of staff Downing Street has seen and was the person whose writ ruled, who was able to drive things through the machine in the way I suspect few other chiefs of staff have done.”

Reynolds tells the inquiry he “can’t remember” why Boris Johnson didn’t chair a Cobra committee meeting at the outset of the pandemic.

A meeting of the committee took place on 23 January 2020 and was chaired by Matt Hancock, the former health secretary.

Reynolds said he discussed the meeting with Johnson but couldn’t remember why the former PM chose not to lead it.

Reynolds tells the inquiry the government “machine” struggles in full crisis mode.

He says individual departments are relatively good at coping with a crisis.

But when the event grips the entire structure of Whitehall, the Cabinet Office finds it “very difficult to function”.

Kate Devlin and Adam Forrest report:

Martin Reynolds has said the government was “not sufficiently quick” at identifying the scale of the Covid pandemic when it emerged, Archie Mitchell reports.

The former private secretary to Boris Johnson said: “You can argue, and I think I would agree that we were not sufficiently quick at identifying the scale of the problem, and of road testing, the plans and preparations we had in place.”

He went on to say the Cabinet Office did not “have the plans and processes in place” to move from the early stage of the pandemic to the “crisis” stage.

Martin Reynolds has hit out at Dominic Cummings’s drive to hire “weirdos and misfits” while working in Downing Street, Archie Mitchell reports.

Mr Reynolds pointed to the hiring of Andrew Sabisky, who quit after just days in the job after it emerged he had argued that “very real” differences in intelligence between members of different racial groups may be explained by genetics.

Mr Sabisky had “unusual views on eugenics”, Mr Reynolds added.

Reynolds also tells the inquiry that “a lot of senior energy and attention” was focused elsewhere in the run up to the pandemic, including a shakeup of the civil service.