PMQs: Labour's Angela Rayner challenges deputy PM Oliver Dowden over impending Covid inquiry

Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner challenged deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden over the government's handling of the impending Covid inquiry as he took the reins for the latest PMQs session in the House of Commons.

While neither the Rishi Sunak or Keir Starmer were in attendance for the latest session on Wednesday 7 June, sparks still flew across the chamber as Rayner and Dowden clashed on the issue currently engulfing the government. The Cabinet Office is currently locked in a battle with the inquiry as the two sides continue to butt heads on whether unredacted messages and diary notes pertaining to Boris Johnson and his correspondence with official ministers during the pandemic.

Rayner began by raking Dowden and his party over the coals at the dispatch box, questioning the Tories manifesto pledge to end the abuse of judicial review, which the government has attempted to use to block the Covid inquriy from using private messages. Rayner asked Dowden after pointing out the hypocrisy: "How's it going?"

The Labour deputy leader then accused the Tory Party of attempting to block the inquiry from taking place. She asked the deputy PM whether he believed that working people across the UK would thank the government for spending taxpayers' money on using "loophole lawyers" to keep the inquiry from progressing as needed.

Dowden attempted to retort by laying out "facts" to do with the upcoming inquiry. He added that the government was not shying away from the inquiry and had given it "all the financial resources it needs" in order to "learn the lessons from the pandemic".

The deputy PM then stated that the government has provided all documents requested for the inquiry to take place, but said that those which were classed as "wholly and unambiguously irrelevant" were held back including the personal medical details of civil servants.

Rayner also took aim at the attempt to access public funds to pay lawyers fees for Boris Johnson in order to fight the inquiry and the use of his personal messages in the inquiry. Johnson eventually handed over the messages personally to the inquiry chair Baroness Hallett.

In a cutting jibe, Dowden poked fun at Rayner's recently uncovered expenses for two pairs of noise cancelling headphones, saying that he finds it "extraordinary that she should lecture us on value for money for the taxpayer".