Boris Johnson says he can’t remember his iPhone passcode. Should we believe him?

Boris Johnson has been unable to give the Covid inquiry WhatsApp messages from his old iPhone because he has forgotten the passcode on his mobile. This is disappointing for the Hallett inquiry into Covid – and anyone hoping for political gossip – because these messages cover the early, panicky and vital first phase of the pandemic when big decisions on lockdowns, border closures and PPE were being considered.

There are concerns that unsuccessful attempts to unlock the iPhone could lead to it being disabled, possibly erasing data including key WhatsApp messages from the pandemic.

How did we get here?

It began with Popbitch, the scurrilous online newsletter. In April 2021, there had been stories that vacuum tycoon James Dyson had been texting Johnson about tax policy on the prime minister’s personal mobile phone. Popbitch revealed Johnson’s number was freely available, and had been for 15 years, and published it to their subscribers. It quipped: “It’s not as though the prime minister’s personal phone number could just be floating out there on the internet, is it? It would be absolutely insane if it was tacked on to the bottom of an old press release that he dished out freely while MP for Henley and shadow minister for higher education. A press release which – feasibly – could still exist online. And which any old email newsletter could start pissing about with…” Security services confiscated the phone and placed it off limits to Johnson. He now claims he can’t remember the passcode.

Can it be true?

It might be plausible in some respects. Johnson’s untidy ways – literal and metaphorical – are well documented, and he apparently saw no need to bother changing his personal phone just because he was now a top global target for spies. A passcode is the sort of thing one can imagine Johnson forgetting; on the other hand, he is capable of reciting screeds of classical verse from memory, as well as the names of all his children and some simple three-word slogans.

“This is a pretty lame excuse,” comments Andrew Whaley, senior technical director at tech security firm Promon. “Provided Boris’s WhatsApp is backed up, accessing the data would take minutes. You can simply take out the sim card, put it in another device and install WhatsApp using SMS verification to get access to all your old messages. This is probably not a case of Johnson being unable to access his phone, but rather a tactic to try and further evade the release of messages relevant to the inquiry.”

Why does his personal phone matter to the Covid inquiry?

To understand the way decisions were taken during the emergency, Baroness Hallett and her team must feel that they are “in the room” in order to assess the quality of the evidence, discussions and decisions that were taken, and how officials and ministers dealt with sometimes multiple crises. Without the full background and context, including off-the-record and informal exchanges across the scene, a full picture cannot be assembled.

Does this phone snafu suit Boris Johnson?

It’s not clear whether this latest development is to Johnson’s advantage or not; he’s been inconsistent in his attitude towards disclosure to the inquiry, most recently volunteering material while Rishi Sunak’s lawyers battled unsuccessfully to censor them. It all depends on whether he hates Sunak more than he loves himself; a tough contest.

What about the other material?

Notebooks and other WhatsApp messages have now been surrendered by Johnson and the Cabinet Office after the High Court sided with Hallett and the inquiry. No doubt there will be another approach to the government to get the iPhone unlocked and the messages retrieved. Meanwhile, they will have plenty of other evidence, including the trove of Matt Hancock’s WhatsApp account, already in the public domain.

Can the WhatsApp messages be recovered?

A forgotten iPhone password can be reset, but only by placing the device in recovery mode: “Recovery mode allows you to erase the iPhone, giving you access to set it up again.”

No doubt the finest minds in GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 will be recruited to crack the Johnson code – or perhaps an enterprising phone repair shop in his erstwhile Uxbridge constituency. Otherwise, at least some of Big Dog’s bumbling activities and contemporaneous reflections may be lost forever. Johnson’s rumoured “Covid memoir” to come later in the year would be a sorry substitute.