Hunt for mole who leaked Dyson texts after No.10 U-turn

DOWNING STREET has U-turned and launched an internal inquiry into the leak of private text messages between Boris Johnson and billionaire Sir James Dyson over the tax status of his staff.

The volte-face came after Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer urged the prime minister to ‘come clean’, accusing him of running ‘government by WhatsApp’.

No.10 had initially said there would be no investigation into how the exchange with Sir James was made public, but yesterday it confirmed an inquiry would be led by the Cabinet Office.

The PM’s official spokesman told a Westminster briefing: ‘The position has changed from yesterday. We keep things under review and we have now decided to undertake this internal inquiry.’ The spokesman confirmed the inquiry would examine the source of leaks of Mr Johnson’s private communication ‘as related to this issue of Dyson’.

In the texts, seen by the BBC, Mr Johnson promised to ‘fix’ the issue after personal lobbying from the entrepreneur (pictured) as he sought to build ventilators at the height of the coronavirus crisis.

At prime minister’s questions this week, Mr Johnson said he made ‘no apology for moving heaven and earth’ to improve supplies to treat patients. But Sir Keir accused him of granting special access to those in his ‘magic circle’ who can access him directly. On an election campaign visit to Wrexham Lager brewery in north Wales, he said: ‘I think it is very important the prime minister comes clean and discloses all of the contacts he’s had. Nobody, but nobody, is against ventilators being produced, but a consortium was put together.

‘We’ve got to get to the bottom of this. This is government by WhatsApp and it’s wrong.’

The BBC reported that the texts were exchanged in March last year after the businessman was unable to get the assurances he was seeking from the treasury. It was at this point that Sir James reportedly took up the matter directly with Mr Johnson.

Meanwhile, the Commons liaison committee has rejected Labour’s call for an immediate investigation into the conduct of Boris Johnson over ‘cronyism’. Chairman Sir Bernard Jenkin MP said existing parliamentary inquiries were already examining the issues.