MESSAGES linked to the Greensill scandal were among data wiped from more than 100 government-issued mobile phones in a Treasury bungle last year, it emerged yesterday.
In response to a freedom of information request by the PA news agency, the government department confirmed that its IT desk reset 117 of its approximately 2,100 mobile phones in 2020 because users entered the wrong pin code, blocking the devices.
With each reset, texts sent from those phones are likely to have been lost. This includes messages sent by Tom Scholar, the department’s permanent secretary, which MPs said should be released.
Earlier this year, Mr Scholar was asked to disclose communications he had with former prime minister and lobbyist David Cameron, who contacted old colleagues to convince them to allow now-collapsed financial services firm Greensill Capital to be included in a taxpayer-funded Covid-19 loan scheme.