Whatsapp chats accessible again
Technicians break into Boris Johnson’s old phone
07/21/2023, 8:09 p.m
In 2021, Boris Johnson will be advised to stop using his old phone for safety reasons. However, an investigative body would like to take a look at this in order to assess the British government’s response to the corona pandemic. Johnson’s memory lapse is no longer an obstacle.
British ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson can still hand over old Whatsapp messages from his former cell phone to an investigative body. “Boris Johnson is pleased that technical experts were able to access all relevant messages from the device,” said his spokesman. As explained several times, Johnson will hand over the material unedited. The 59-year-old had previously claimed that he had forgotten the PIN code on his old mobile phone.
There has been a tug of war over Johnson’s Whatsapp messages for a long time. The committee is to use their help to assess how well the government at the time reacted to the corona pandemic. Although it should primarily be about Johnson’s actions, the conservative politician had announced that he wanted to hand over the news to the committee. However, the government of his party colleague Rishi Sunak had refused to hand over uncensored correspondence with government employees and cabinet colleagues.
There is speculation that Sunak – then Treasury Secretary – and other cabinet ministers feared that messaging with Johnson could make them look bad. A court ultimately ruled that the government must hand over Johnson’s chat messages, calendars and notebooks unretouched.
Telephone as a security risk
The newspaper “time” reported last week that some of the messages hadn’t been delivered because Johnson couldn’t be 100 percent sure he remembered the password on his old phone. In 2021, for security reasons, he was advised not to use his cell phone during his reign because his number was publicly visible on the Internet for years. After that, however, there were concerns that the device could be automatically deactivated and the content deleted if an incorrect code was entered, it said.
Johnson’s spokesman emphasized that it was always the case that Johnson wanted to pass on the material and help with its recovery. A security check will follow at the central government authority, which will be responsible for the further timing.