According to Boris Johnson, he is bypassing the government, which has refused to turn over the WhatsApp messages, and giving them to the Covid inquiry directly. The messages date back to May 2021.
The inquiry's request for texts from the former PM and other officials has been met with a legal challenge from the Cabinet Office.
Numerous messages, it claims, have no bearing on the investigation. .
However, Baroness Hallett, the head of the inquiry, has stated that it is up to her to determine what is and is not pertinent.
Mr. Johnson wrote to Baroness Hallett to explain that he understood the legal action being taken by the government but that he was "perfectly content" to make public the messages he had already sent to the Cabinet Office.
However, Mr. Johnson said he had been informed he could no longer access his phone from that time period "safely" and that he would like to send messages that date back to April 2021.
When it was discovered that the phone number had been publicly available on the internet for 15 years, security concerns were raised regarding the call.
Prior to this time, messages were probably sent out discussing the 2020 coronavirus lockdowns that would be put into place.
Mr. Johnson claimed he wanted to "test" the security services' recommendations and requested help from the Cabinet Office to securely turn on his old phone.
He added that because he had given the Cabinet Office his contemporaneous notebooks, he was no longer in possession of them.
"I asked the Cabinet Office to give these to you. I will request that these be returned to my office if the government decides not to do so, so that I can give them to you directly. " .
Prof. Alan Woodward, a cyber security expert, stated on BBC Radio 4's World At One program that the risk of using Mr. Johnson's old phone was "minimal" and that it was "perfectly possible" to do so without putting it at risk. " .
The inquiry instructed the government earlier this week to turn over any messages exchanged during the pandemic between Mr. Johnson and 40 other ministers and officials by Thursday at 16:00 BST.
According to Mr. Johnson, he would be "happy" to provide the inquiry with the raw data.
Communications between ministers and civil servants that do not involve Mr. Johnson are also kept in the Cabinet Office, which assists the prime minister in running the government.
It announced on Thursday that it would "with regret" be starting a judicial review of the demand after missing the deadline and vowed to "continue to cooperate fully with the inquiry.".
The Cabinet Office defended its decision to withhold some communications by claiming that many of them were "unambiguously irrelevant" and that turning them over to the investigation would violate ministers' privacy and impair future decision-making.
It demonstrates an unwarranted encroachment into other facets of government work. Additionally, it represents a breach of their legitimate expectations for privacy and the protection of their personal information, according to a letter the Cabinet Office sent to the inquiry.
On Thursday, science minister George Freeman said he believed the courts would likely hold that Baroness Hallett had the right to choose "what evidence she deems relevant" in an interview with BBC One's Question Time.
He did, however, add that "people's privacy is really important" and that it was "a point worth testing" how to handle private correspondence.
I'd like to see a scenario in which the inquiry states, "Listen, we will completely respect the privacy of anything that isn't related to Covid. We'll delete it," he said.
The legal action taken by the government was called a "desperate attempt to withhold evidence" by Labour's deputy leader, Angela Rayner. For bereaved families, it was a "kick in the teeth," according to the Liberal Democrats.
Lord Barwell, who served as Theresa May's chief of staff while she was prime minister, stated on the BBC Radio 4 Today program that he believed the government was making a "bad mistake.".
He continued, "We're conducting the investigation to reassure people that we're discovering the truth. People will lose faith in the investigation's findings if the government decides what it can and cannot see.
. "
