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LONDON — Downing Street’s former top officials face grillings from Britain’s public inquiry into COVID-19 this week. But the headline news may not be their testimony, but the WhatsApp messages they were sending at the time.
As the nation awaits evidence sessions likely to reveal pandemic-era chaos at the heart of Downing Street, nerves in Whitehall are on edge. The inquiry has demanded the mass disclosure of messages from the encrypted app, despite an unsuccessful attempt to block their release by the government.
Conservative former Chancellor George Osborne suggested late last week that messages revealed at the inquiry will contain “disgusting and misogynistic language.” Dominic Cummings, the acerbic aide to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has already chosen to publicize some of his own colorful missives ahead of time. Other witnesses have been less forthcoming, claiming their phones have long since been wiped.
Nevertheless, the probe has already published a handful of pandemic-era WhatsApps from Britain’s most senior civil servant, Simon Case — who is still in post, but now on medical leave — which offered a window into the thought processes of those in charge. One message showed Case saying “I cannot cope with this.” In another he called Johnson’s wife Carrie “the real person in charge.”
The furor over those messages and the anticipation of more to come has reopened big questions about government transparency in the digital age — and in particular, the increasing use of the “disappearing messages” function on WhatsApp by senior officials, political advisors and ministers.
Some of those involved argue they should be allowed the same in-person privacy they enjoy in Westminster’s corridors and canteens — and that WhatsApp messages are no different to quiet “water-cooler conversations” in any office environment.
But transparency campaigners say the mass deletion of “government by WhatsApp” will lose crucial decision-making “to the memory hole.”
Launched in 2020, the disappearing messages function — once switched on — deletes conversations after a set time period, unless either participant chooses to keep them.
One government official said “about half the Cabinet” now uses a disappearing messages timer. Like other serving and former advisors and officials POLITICO spoke to for this piece, they were granted anonymity to frankly discuss the inner workings of the British government.
Case, the Cabinet secretary, has been burned more badly than any other high-profile figure by his historic text messages. He now uses a timer set to seven days, according to four people with his phone number.
A similar disappearing messages timer has been seen by two people on a phone number associated with Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan. The feature is also used by at least 11 of 50 special advisers (SpAds) whose statuses were reviewed by POLITICO.
The 7-day deletion timer
Alice Lilly, senior researcher at the Institute for Government, said routinely setting messages to delete after seven days “raises massive questions for transparency and accountability.”
“There is an argument for making the guidance more prescriptive,” she said. “There could for example be a minimum time, like 60 to 90 days, or more detailed requirements about how often messages should be uploaded to government systems.”
When Johnson’s sister Rachel said Case was using disappearing messages in March, the Cabinet Office stressed he used it on his personal phone, not his work device.
Shortly afterwards, government rules were updated to explicitly allow disappearing messages — arguing they “have a role” in reducing clutter on devices.
The rules say “significant government business” should be avoided on “non-corporate communication channels” like WhatsApp. If it arises, a record of the conversation should be forwarded onto a government system.
Ministers and officials are expected to use their professional judgement to decide what meets the threshold.
A former senior SpAd scoffed at this. “In general, most ministers, SpAds and even some officials use their personal phones for government business,” they said. “No minister is spending time screenshotting their thousands of WhatsApps and sending them into the official record.”
A second former senior SpAd said disappearing messages have “become more popular” since the government lost its legal fight with the COVID inquiry.
“You see [officials] implementing these disappearing messages, because they feel they’re at risk of having to hand over their messages and show what they’ve been up to,” they said.
‘A good practice for everyone’
But Iria Puyosa, a senior research fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, argued the disappearing message tool is “pretty legitimate” as long as government record-keeping rules are followed.
“It’s a good practice for everyone to do,” she said. “I have disappearing messages by default on all my messages except with my son.”
Puyosa stressed disappearing messages are to protect the user if a phone is physically lost or stolen, rather than against a cyber-attack. It is also useful in “authoritarian countries where you are detained, police get your phone and get to know everyone you’ve talked to,” she said. “Think activists, or feminists in Iran.”
A third former senior SpAd argued disappearing messages are vital for privacy, as staff had been warned by security officials their phones could be “compromised.” They are also used by some journalists to protect their sources.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “We proactively published clear guidance on this issue in March 2023.
“The use of disappearing messages is permitted, as civil servants and ministerial private offices record and log official decisions and views for the official record, where relevant and appropriate.
“It has never been the case that every phone call, post-it note or electronic message must be preserved. This would be expensive, excessive and burdensome.”
WhatsApp ‘erupted’ during COVID
What is certain is that in modern-day Whitehall, WhatsApp pings ceaselessly all day long.
The serving government official quoted above lamented: “It never ends. At some point you just have to decide to stop looking at it and decide to look in the morning.”
Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, who resigned from a six-year Cabinet position in 2016, said WhatsApp use “erupted” during COVID — and that he has used the app himself to press the Foreign Office over its policy on China. He added he could “see the facility” of disappearing messages on WhatsApp to avoid clutter.
But he warned government-by-WhatsApp more generally raises questions about leaks. “Any government-to-government communication should not be disappeared and shouldn’t be done on your telephone,” he said. “It should be done on your departmental phone.”
Strict limitations already exist on WhatsApp use for No. 10 Downing Street staff — and auto-deletion policies are already in place more widely on government devices, including 24 hours for internal Google Chats, and 90 days to four years for emails, court documents show.
But Cori Crider of campaigning group Foxglove, which failed in a court challenge against the government’s use of WhatsApp, said people making policy should not be allowed disappearing messages “full stop — it’s just too tempting that really crucial decisions will be lost to the memory hole.”
For some in Westminster, the objections are more prosaic.
“I find it really annoying,” said a serving SpAd of disappearing messages. “I think ‘what did you say last week?’ or ‘when did we agree to go to lunch?’”
Emilio Casalicchio, Annabelle Dickson and Esther Webber contributed reporting.
