Covid Inquiry Demands Evidence From Boris Johnson Amid Allegations of Cabinet Office Cover-up

However, the Cabinet Office has not provided all of the requested information and is claiming that it does not have certain documents, leading to accusations of a cover-up.

Angela Rayner, the deputy leader of the Labour party, has said that the missing evidence must be found and presented to the inquiry to avoid a "whiff of a cover-up." The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has accused the government of failing to understand the need for action and of having a weak inquiry.

In a letter to the Times, the chair of the IICSA, Prof Alexis Jay, said that the government's response to the inquiry's 20 recommendations was inadequate and that action may be deferred indefinitely.

The IICSA also criticized the UK government for excluding glass from a deposit return scheme, which is being implemented in Scotland.

The Scottish minister in charge of the scheme, Lorna Slater, said that the UK government was trying to "sabotage" the proposal and that the Conservative party was "sabotaging" the proposal.

Rishi Sunak, the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer, will travel to Washington next week for talks with Joe Biden, where the two leaders are expected to discuss trade issues and the war in Ukraine.

The government is pushing to address specific trade issues and is seeking closer partnerships with individual states, including California and Texas.

The chair of the Covid-19 inquiry, Heather Hallett, has said that she aims to conclude public hearings by summer 2026 and that an investigation into government procurement during the pandemic will be opened as part of the inquiry.

The Covid inquiry has requested a trove of documents from the Cabinet Office, including messages on the phones of Boris Johnson and a No 10 aide, concerning the government's handling of the pandemic.

The Cabinet Office has objected to the request, arguing that some of the information is not relevant to the inquiry and that sharing such extensive sets of messages with a non-government body could compromise the confidentiality of the contents.

The inquiry will not necessarily publish every piece of evidence it receives.

Former Financial Times Whitehall correspondent and author Sebastian Payne has been shortlisted as the Conservative party candidate in Selby and Ainsty.

On the story about potential price caps on essential foods, former M&S chairman Stuart Rose warned of the "unintended consequences" of such a proposal.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has criticized proposed government measures to regulate the prices of electronics, clothing, and food, stating that they would not have a significant impact on pricing and could harm efforts to reduce inflation.

The BRC warned that the measures could "thwart" efforts to reduce inflation, and the opt-in scheme proposed by the government would allow supermarkets to select which items they would cap.