No10: We WON’T hand over private phone messages

THE Prime Minister was on a collision course with Parliament last night after rejecting demands to publish private email and phone messages from his closest aides.

Government sources said Boris Johnson would not comply with an extraordinary order to release private messages from his chief adviser Dominic Cummings and eight other aides about the decision to suspend Parliament for five weeks.

Text messages, private emails and messages on social media services such as WhatsApp and Facebook are all covered by the demand.

MPs voted on Monday for the measure by 311 votes to 302 following an angry debate in which Attorney General Geoffrey Cox warned that the demand might well be illegal. The vote requires the Government to release the information by 11pm this evening, along with documents relating to contingency plans for No Deal, which were codenamed Operation Yellowhammer.

Downing Street last night said it would respond to the demands, led by former Tory minister Dominic Grieve ‘in due course’.

Ministers are expected to release some details of Operation Yellowhammer in the coming days.

A Cabinet Office report leaked to the Mail last week warned that a No Deal Brexit could lead to public disorder, travel chaos and shortages of fresh food, medicines and petrol.

However, No 10 said the demand to release all official advice could damage decisionmaking, with the Prime Minister’s official spokesman saying: ‘The scale of the information requested is both disproportionate and unprecedented.’

Privately, government sources said that Mr Johnson would not sanction the release of his advisers’ messages.

One source accused MPs of ‘co-ordinating a witch-hunt by parliamentary legislation’.

Another source said: ‘ Mr Grieve can f*** off. There is no way we are publishing people’s private messages.’

The move could see MPs attempt to level a charge against Mr Johnson of being ‘in contempt of Parliament’.

But ministers believe that publishing private messages from advisers could put them in breach of other laws governing human rights and data protection. Mr Cox told MPs he was ‘troubled’ by the demand, adding: ‘ What legal right do the Government have to require their employees to give up private email accounts and personal mobile numbers?’ But pro - Remain MPs demanded the release of the material as they try to demonstrate that Mr Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament was driven by a wish to limit parliamentary scrutiny of Brexit. Mr Grieve said that advisers were covered by the civil service code even when they were using private accounts to communicate.

He added: ‘ Whether they are published or not, we will continue as parliamentarians to work in a systematic way to assert our authority in the House of Commons with the means at our disposal.

‘And although it may sometimes take longer than I would wish, I can assure you we have the capacity to be absolutely relentless, and we will be...

‘All I can say to No 10 Downing Street and those who seem to be operating within it and controlling it is, if you think you are going to be able to escape the rights of Parliament to hold you to account, you’ve got another thing coming.

‘ It will come upon you, it may take several weeks, but it will come along and you will have to divulge the background facts which you have been trying to conceal.’

‘Co-ordinating a witchhunt’