Boris Johnson has confirmed that messages between him and James Dyson about the billionaire businessman’s tax affairs will be published on Friday, saying there was nothing “remotely dodgy” about the exchanges. Downing Street announced a formal investigation into how the text messages leaked, before then informally briefing friendly newspapers that those inside No 10 believed Dominic Cummings was the source. In the messages Dyson asks Johnson that company staff who worked in the UK temporarily on a scheme to build medical ventilators at the start of the Covid pandemic should not be liable for extra tax, with the prime minister agreeing to help.
Asked by reporters during a campaign visit to Derbyshire on Friday, Johnson confirmed the full texts would be released, as he had promised earlier in the week. “Indeed. I think that is happening today,” he said. He denied any wrongdoing: “Let me tell you, if you think that there’s anything remotely dodgy or rum or weird or sleazy about trying to secure more ventilators at a time of a national pandemic and doing everything in your power to do that, then I think you are out of your mind. “When you’re facing a pandemic and you’ve got 9,000 ventilators as we had – that’s all we had – and, to the best of our knowledge, putting people on ventilation was the only way to help people who are really in difficulties with Covid, of course it was right to get the best of British manufacturing together as we did with the ventilator challenge.” Labour has argued that the issue is not that Dyson was involved in the ventilators, but that the texts showed how someone like the company’s founder had unfair access to press their case directly to the prime minister, with Johnson replying to him: “I will fix it tomo!” The inquiry will not examine a string of other leaks, including a text to the prime minister from the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, or leaked emails about donations solicited to cover the renovations of the prime minister’s flat. Hours after the inquiry was announced, in an apparently coordinated attack, the Telegraph, Times and Sun reported near-identical comments from No 10 sources blaming Cummings, Johnson’s former chief aide who was removed last November. The quotes, which appeared in part an attempt to distract media attention from the substance of the allegations about unfair access, which also include lobbying by David Cameron over the now-collapsed company Greensill Capital, said Johnson was “disappointed” and “saddened” at Cummings. The Telegraph added Cummings would have had legitimate access to the messages while he worked at No 10, quoting an insider who said: “If you join the dots it looks like it’s coming from Dom.” Johnson’s spokesperson did not deny that the quotes originated from inside Downing Street, but refused to discuss the issue further: “I am not going to comment on speculation and, of course, it is for the Cabinet Office to take that work forward, I am not going to pre-empt it.” On a campaign visit to Hartlepool, Keir Starmer condemned what he called “government by WhatsApp”. The Labour leader said: “Now we’re getting arguments and quarrelling at the centre of government about who is leaking information about privileged access. Boris Johnson is desperate to try to put this at arm’s length, but it’s obvious that he can’t.” Johnson, who has had the same phone number for a decade, is regularly texted by business leaders and politicians, sources have said. He is understood to have liberally distributed his personal number over the years. Separately, Labour has formally called for the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to publish all records of text messages, calls or other informal meetings connected to tax rules and Covid support schemes following Cameron’s lobbying. Cameron, who was an adviser to Greensill Capital and had share options, repeatedly contacted Sunak and other Treasury ministers during the start of the coronavirus crisis last year to seek full access to government-backed loans for the finance company.