Covid inquiry 'will be flawed if it doesn't get all documents it needs’

Dilemma: Boris Johnson out jogging near his home today, and PM Rishi Sunak

- Nicholas Cecil Political Editor

THE head of the Covid inquiry was warned today that her probe may be flawed if it is denied material by the Government.

Lord Saville, who chaired the Bloody Sunday inquiry, backed Baroness Hallett’s demand that the inquiry team should decide what material is relevant or not. His comments came as the Government was seeking a last-ditch compromise over the clash to avoid it escalating into a court showdown.

The Cabinet Office has argued that it should withhold material deemed by senior lawyers to be “unambiguously irrelevant” to the inquiry.

But Lord Saville told Times Radio: “The question as to whether the material is relevant or not is in my view at least primarily for her, and nobody else.

“If she simply accepts the word of somebody else that the material is irrelevant she will not in my view at least have done as thorough a job as she should.”