The Cabinet Office is seeking a judicial review against the Covid inquiry over the release of unredacted WhatsApps:

“The Cabinet Office has today sought leave to bring a judicial review. We do so with regret and with an assurance that we will continue to cooperate fully with the inquiry before, during and after the jurisdictional issue in question is determined by the courts, specifically whether the Inquiry has the power to compel production of documents and messages which are unambiguously irrelevant to the Inquiry’s work, including personal communications and matters unconnected to the govemment’s handling of Covid. We consider there to be important issues of principle at stake here, affecting both the rights of individuals and the proper conduct of government. The request for unambiguously irrelevant material goes beyond the powers of the Inquiry. Individuals, junior officials, current and former Ministers and departments should not be required to provide material that is irrelevant to the Inquiry’s work. It represents an unwarranted intrusion into other aspects of the work of government. It also represents an intrusion into their legitimate expectations of privacy and protection of their personal information.”

It’s war…