he said the affair only began years after meeting the young man who was 15 at the time. he said he regrets the relationship and lying about it when itv tried to investigate. he has been talking to the bbc. phillip, come on in. good to see you. thank you. phillip schofield granted this interview because he wanted to say sorry, he wanted to show contrition and he wanted to correct some of what he sees as the false narratives in the public domain over the past week. are you feeling 0k to do this? are you feeling strong enough to do this interview? yeah, i have to. schofield described the enormous toll recent days have taken on him. it is relentless. it is day after day after day after day. if you do that. if you don t think that is going to have the most catastrophic effect on someone s mind. do you want me to die? because that s where i am. i have lost everything. schofield says he is extremely concerned for the welfare of the young man with whom he had an extramarital affair.
the tewkesbury borough safety group says, emergency services will no longer staff the event, until organisers come up with a safety plan. you re live with bbc news. now to the latest development here in the uk regarding material demanded by an inquiry into the government s handling of covid 19. former prime minister borisjohnson has said he is giving unredacted whatsapp messages dating back to may 2021 directly to the covid inquiry, bypassing the government which has refused to hand them over. yesterday, the cabinet office said it was seeking a judicial review of the demand for messages from the former pm and other officials to be handed over to the inquiry chair. thank you for being here on the programme. the story has become much more complicated in the last 24 hours. ~ , , , , hours. absolutely, there is this bi . ? hours. absolutely, there is this big? about hours. absolutely, there is this big? about what hours. absolutely, there is this big? about what the
basic look of this, what is your assessment in terms of the government s position that there should be areas of privacy or the opponents that say it looks like a cover up? yeti opponents that say it looks like a cover up? ye cover up? yet i think that the government cover up? yet i think that the government position - cover up? yet i think that the government position is - government position is unsustainable. they are saying they are taking a judicial review, lots of lawyers predicts they are likely to lose thatjudicial review and will end up having to hand over unredacted messages anyway. when you take a step back, as you say, the government set up this inquiry, they made it a statutory inquiry, an independent inquiry chaired by an extremely respected independent judge, baroness hallett. it is in her right to ask for the material that she thinks she needs for the inquiry to draw its conclusions. the government s case is, there s lots of private material in these messages and it wo
you are handing it over to a judge, not making it public. thejudge herself can look at the messages and decide what needs to be redacted and what is in the public interest for us to know. i m sure we can trust a very experienced seniorjudge to make those decisions. the fact of the matter is, if it is whatsapp communications on government phones, it is government business and i think this is where ministers are running into trouble. i think there s a tendency, these days, for politicians to use whatsapp quite casually. whereas, if you are using whatsapp on government phones, it is. 0r whatsapp on government phones, it is. or even personal phones to conduct government business, there is a public interest in seeing that material. , :, :, :, material. i m sorry we have to leave it there. thanks material. i m sorry we have to leave it there. thanks for material. i m sorry we have to leave it there. thanks forjoining - material. i m sorry we have to leave it there. thanks forjoining us