RT by @catherinemep: NEW: The curious case of "missing" WhatsApps from Boris Johnson:

Penny Mordaunt claims today she has been sleuthing for over 2 years to understand the "disappearance" of several exchanges she had with the then-PM.

She says in May 2021 she "became aware that key WhatsApp messages sent to and from him were missing from my phone".

Some were gone, but not all, she says.

This was around the time Johnson changed phones because his number was discovered on the internet.

In written evidence to the Covid inquiry released today, Mordaunt says she:

- Asked the No 10 security team if they were related and was given a sepculative answer that "because of a security breach, the PM may have deleted all his messages".

- Pressed 14 times for a meeting with the PM's chief of staff to get to the bottom of it

- Offered to have her phone forensically examined, but the Cabinet Office said as it was a personal device this would cost £1k per day for six weeks' work

- Instead, got a quote from a government-approved cyber security contractor for £1k

- Raised the issue at her exit interview when she left as a Cabinet Office minister - and told officials "the policy on this needs to change"

- Spoke to the Cabinet Office cyber security team but they had "no suggested course of action to try and retrieve the messages"

- Finally got got advice from the National Cyber Security Centre in January 2023 that said "no official advice had been given to the prime minister to delete his messages"

Johnson's spokesman tells me he has "sent all relevant messages in his possession to the inquiry and has complied exactly with their requests”.

At the inquiry earlier this month, Johnson said: “I haven’t removed any WhatsApps from my phone.”

A source close to him adds Mordaunt’s phone is entirely a matter for her.

The Cabinet Office has declined to comment. It has provided over 55,00…

🐦🔗: https://nitter.cz/breeallegretti/status/1737207233841074641#m

[2023-12-19 20:24 UTC]