DAN HODGES: Boris has no interest in an honest account of his actions during Covid... he ONLY wants to embarrass Sunak

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The Covid Inquiry was always destined to end up like this. Partisan point-scoring. Self-serving grandstanding. Cover-ups, and accusations of cover-ups. But few would have predicted it would also start like this.

Baroness Hallett's opening public hearings aren't even scheduled to begin until June 13. 

Yet already her investigation into Britain's mostly deadly and disruptive health crisis for a century has descended into bitterness, acrimony and legal challenges – all, of course, at the taxpayers' expense.

At the heart of the mayhem is – inevitably – the premier agent of chaos, Boris Johnson. 

Or rather, two dozen dog-eared notebooks and an old mobile phone that used to be in his possession and which – according to Hallett – should be handed over to her so she can see what tantalising lockdown secrets they contain.

Baroness Hallett's opening public hearings aren't even scheduled to begin until June 13. Yet already her investigation into Britain's mostly deadly and disruptive health crisis for a century has descended into bitterness, acrimony and legal challenges – all, of course, at the taxpayers' expense

Johnson, with all the innocence of a dust-streaked urchin whistling insouciantly before the shattered window of his local sweetshop, is claiming he'd love to hand over the items. 

But, alas, he can't because the notebooks are in the hands of the Government, and most of the relevant messages remain on a phone that has been locked by the security services.

In response, Hallett has, in effect, threatened to send round the rozzers. And Rishi Sunak has been left looking like the biggest whitewash merchant since Richard Nixon offered his pals a midnight viewing of the Watergate apartments.

But as ever, perception is giving reality a hiding. Starting with Johnson, who is again playing the public, the press and his parliamentary colleagues for fools. 

Had he really wanted to hand over the relevant information, it could all now be safely in the hands of the inquiry. But, instead, he's opted to use the whole saga as an opportunity to stitch up Sunak.

It's true that he initially granted the Cabinet Office access to his personal Covid diaries. But only on the proviso that a single selected official could peruse them. 

Then, a week ago, the Cabinet Office announced information gleaned from a separate electronic Government diary had been passed to the police because it contained evidence of possible Covid breaches. 

At which point, Johnson went ballistic, sacked his Cabinet Office-appointed lawyers, and demanded Cabinet Office Secretary Oliver Dowden's resignation.

But crucially, he also withdrew consent for the Cabinet Office to continue to examine his personal diaries, or discuss their contents. 

Which meant when a Cabinet Office spokesman stated that they couldn't hand over the hallowed tomes because they were no longer in their possession, the whole of Westminster screamed 'cover-up!' In fact, it was just Johnson playing his usual games.

The same goes for the messages on the former PM's phone.

It's true that his old mobile had been locked by the security services after it was deemed to have been compromised. 

But his statement saying 'I had asked the Cabinet Office for assistance in turning it on securely so that I can search for all relevant material' played – as ever – fast and loose with the truth.

According to Ministers, the Cabinet Office contacted Johnson in January to ask if analysts at the National Cyber Security Centre could have access to the mobile to access the data. Without success.

Then there are the messages on a second phone. Johnson claims to have handed more than 40 unredacted 'conversations' to the Cabinet Office that he believes are relevant to the inquiry from that device. 

But as a Minister explained: 'We don't know if they are the only relevant messages because he hasn't given us access to that phone either. We don't know if they have been redacted or edited in any way. Boris is expecting us to just take his word for that.'

Johnson has no interest in an honest and transparent accounting of his actions during Covid. Truth and his premiership have always been strangers. All he cares about is maximising political embarrassment for his successor.

And to be fair, he's doing an excellent job. Even before the Covid inquiry is properly under way, the heroes and villains have already been sharply defined.

On one side are Sunak and his Ministers, frantically trying to hide their missteps and misdeeds. 

DAN HODGES: At the heart of the mayhem is – inevitably – the premier agent of chaos, Boris Johnson

On the other is the noble and heroic Baroness Hallett, bravely and doggedly battling to uncover the facts. It's only a matter of time before images of her face start appearing on T-shirts, and she is seen sporting a spider brooch.

But again there's a problem. Sunak and his Ministers are right. The Government's position is twofold. Information should be withheld from the inquiry for national security reasons. And information should be withheld that is 'unambiguously irrelevant' to the inquiry.

Hallett concedes the first point, but contests the second. Her argument is that all communications over the relevant period should be made available to provide 'context' for the decisions that were being taken at the time. Which is ludicrous.

True, Ministers deserve high levels of scrutiny. But they also need some basic level of privacy. Everyday private messages to children, spouses and friends haven't – or shouldn't have – any role to play in Hallett's deliberations.

As one Minister observed: 'It's no use people banging on about Baroness Hallett's integrity. She's got 60 or 70 people working on that inquiry. We know what will happen. Eventually stuff will leak.'

Then there is the issue of the inquiry's objective. If we are going to go through this benighted exercise, it should be for a single, simple purpose. To ensure that if Britain is hit by another pandemic, we are all properly prepared.

Yet Hallett's terms of reference show there is virtually zero prospect of maintaining that sort of focus. 

The document detailing it ranges from Covid's impact on 'housing and homelessness' through 'immigration and asylum' to 'any disparities evident in the impact of the pandemic on different categories of people, including, but not limited to, those relating to protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 and equality categories under the Northern Ireland Act 1998'. 

Almost as an afterthought, it adds: 'Identify the lessons to be learned from the above, to inform preparations for future pandemics across the UK.'

That last element is where Hallett – and taxpayers' money – should be focused. On protecting the British people should they ever again be faced by a major virus outbreak. Not on replicating the partisan bear-pit of the House of Commons. 

Or acting as a court of law. Or, as some people seem to want, creating some form of Covid Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

And certainly not in some puritanical pursuit of Ministers' private WhatsApp messages.

The Hallett inquiry has not even opened its doors to the public, yet in an attempt to expand its sprawling remit it is already mired in chaos. 

And this is only the beginning. Module 2 (Core UK Decision-making and Political Governance) starts on Tuesday. Module 1 (Resilience and preparedness) begins its public sessions a week later.

Modules 2A (Scotland), 2B (Wales) and 2C (Northern Ireland) commenced last month. Module 3 (Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Healthcare Systems in the 4 Nations of the UK) has been quietly chugging away since February. 

Additional 'modules' on vaccines, the care sector, procurement and PPE, Test and Trace, business and financial responses, health inequalities, and schools and key workers are yet to be scheduled.

In 2009, Gordon Brown said the Chilcott Inquiry into the Iraq War would draw a line under that conflict. Fourteen years and £10 million later, people are still arguing about its findings. The Haslett inquiry has already made that look like money well spent.