Rishi Sunak has 'nothing to hide' from the Covid inquiry | William Hague

it's obscuring the bigger picture that actually, like I said, the government has provided a lot of material to the investigation and the investigation needs to continue and do its job because they're doing it, in the meantime, they're getting on with it, well, I . I know they do, but they need it. There is a danger that we will have another pandemic before the research has been reported for our regular WTF panel speaking during the week ending today. I am joined by Conservative peer and formative leader William Hague and Labor peer Angela. Smith, good afternoon to you both, good afternoon, good afternoon, caffeine, well this was the week that the government and the Covid

inquiry

have been at odds over what material should and should not be given to the chair of the

inquiry

, Baroness Hallett, the cabinet office is discussing.

She believes that many of the messages are not relevant and that releasing them would compromise the minister's privacy and hinder future decision-making and have decided to seek a judicial review. Science Minister George Freeman told the BBC the government would likely lose its legal challenge. We have to have a situation where parliamentary ministers can talk privately and exchange and that is the oil of good democracy, it has been since the days of Cicero, but of course the moment you write it down it is in writing and I think Probably the best advice is if you don't want to be quoted or taken out of context, don't write it, but everyone is running around 24/7 messaging each other.

The judges of the inquiry are established by the government that appointed this. The judge is saying it's up to her to decide what's relevant, now it's subordination and I can't really comment on that but come on George I have to be careful but I would tell you I would be very surprised if a court didn't take that view. Just today we heard that Boris Johnson was handing over all his unredacted WhatsApp messages and in the last half hour Caroline Dionage, who was Social Affairs Minister (sorry, Social Care Minister) at the start of the pandemic, told us that She had also already handed over all of her WhatsApp messages, hey, William Hague, what's all the fuss about?

Does the government need to simply back down and simply hand over everything the investigation demands? Which is a good question, of course, what's all the fuss about? because clearly a lot of people think they have

nothing

to

hide

, they are handing over their messages, including Boris Johnson, and bear in mind that the government, the cabinet office, will quite rightly have already handed over a lot of material to this investigation, but what it is about is the apparent demand of research to see messages that are not necessarily relevant to her in others, they want to decide what is relevant to her, whereas in all previous research, including the ones I have set out in the In the past, it was the cabinet office or the government, let's say here. the relevant material, so the argument is really about that for the future and whether that makes investigations more complicated, whether that inhibits ministers from discussing things and officials that are not relevant the previous year, you know, in situations future for any future investigation that is really what is the right argument to side with the cabinet office, um, but now it will be decided in court, but William, aren't you really siding with Rishi Tuna because, while he was chatting with Caroline Dinage earlier on the show, I know she just couldn't understand why the ministers didn't hand it all over to her.

I think a lot of people will assume that Rishi Sunak has something to

hide

. No, I have no idea. I really doubt it. that he has something to hide, but I do what I said after being. I set up an inquiry when he was Secretary of State for Wales and I remember the rules about these things. I think what the government is doing is not hiding anything. of anyone are trying to make sure that the president is not prepared for the future, but an investigative check may require things that, in the opinion of the cabinet office, are unequivocally irrelevant, that is that phrase, well, Angela, that is which I think is really what Angela Smith is all about, if you, if your party wins the election, you might be very grateful that a precedent has been set and you don't have to make everyone check all your WhatsApp messages and ministerial communications in private, well, I thought that was great.

Wisdom of George Freeman. I wrote it just the way he said it the moment you write something, it's in writing, which I find a strange thing for him to say, but well, I guess what I find strange in all this research is about the truth and it's about trusted and what the cabinet office says is trust us, we know the truth, you will get what is relevant and other things like, as William said, but what I find extraordinary is when government ministers say we won't. Win this but we're going to use public money to prove the case.

It's like a soap opera that you can't believe is true. It is not like this? It is not like this? You wrote this little novel. No one would believe you could be true. That's nonsense, I'm not going to post it, it doesn't look good, William is and does it. You know, I was jokingly saying, as always, maybe Rishi Sunat has something to hide, but that's it, as Angela just said. it's about trust and openness, it doesn't sit well with them, that works well, it becomes a very confusing argument and I don't know why George Freeman said they would lose it and I would lose it, but if it were a government Minister, because of the arguments that was giving before, I would be reasonably optimistic that the government could win the case, but this is obscuring the bigger picture, which in reality, as I said, the government has provided a lot of material for the investigation and the investigation needs to move forward. and do your job because they're doing it in the meantime, well I know they do, but they need it.

There is a danger here that we will have another pandemic before the research has reported, so John Bell said this. week there was a 30 chance of another pandemic in the next decade, we have a habit of including consultations that I have participated in in the past that take years and years, while they are more useful if they report at least three years from now. well set up, this was set up two years ago, they need to sit down and do that, no, yes, no, legal action just delays things further. Boris Johnson said I have in the user interface, you can have it that would move.

Things move much faster. I think this seems pretty shady. If Boris Johnson, who the investigation is about, says I have the information. I want it to be seen here. Surely we can move pretty quickly, but I think William. why I started an investigation when he was also a minister and it took me years and years. I was out of that job. He was miles away when it was reported and that does no good for justice so let's move on but if Bobby Johnson has the information that he wants to give us, let's move on.