PM accused of withholding texts as they may reveal plot to oust Boris Johnson

RISHI Sunak has been accused of withholding WhatsApp messages from the Covid inquiry as they may reveal a plot to oust Boris Johnson as PM.

Allies of Mr Johnson claim the cache of texts demanded by Baroness Hallett could show the then-Chancellor was agitating to bring him down.

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One told the Mail on Sunday: “What is Rishi hiding? Is it plotting against Boris with Dominic Cummings?”

But Mr Sunak’s allies have described the claims as “total nonsense”.

The Cabinet Office is going to court to avoid giving the inquiry material it deems irrelevant.

But sources have suggested a compromise in which inquiry officials view the messages in a “reading room” without taking them away.

Mr Johnson bypassed the Cabinet Office to pass his texts to the inquiry.

Ex-No10 chief of staff Gavin Barwell yesterday became the latest to call for the government to submit to the inquiry’s requests.

He told Times Radio: “It’s about getting to the truth.

“And if that involves the degree of embarrassment for some officials and ministers about the tone they’ve used in a WhatsApp, that’s a price worth paying to get the answers that we all deserve.”