was the subject of internet mockery today following the announcement of a new  WhatsApp channel.

 heralded a new means of providing information - such as announcements on jabs or self-assessment tax return deadlines - direct to Britons' mobile phones.

But, in response to the creation of the WhatsApp channel, social media users were quick to mockingly remind the Prime Minister of his past woes with the messaging service.

'Won't they keep deleting the messages?,' asked one, as they highlighted a failure by senior Government figures - including Mr Sunak himself - to hand over their past WhatsApps from the Covid crisis to the official pandemic probe.

In an appearance before the Covid Inquiry last month, the PM admitted his pandemic-era WhatsApps were missing.

This was because he had changed his phone 'multiple times' in recent years and not backed up his messages, Mr Sunak added.

Rishi Sunak was the subject of internet mockery following the announcement of a new UK Government WhatsApp channel

Social media users were quick to mockingly remind the PM of his past woes with the messaging service and his 'missing' WhatsApps from the Covid pandemic

The UK Government's new WhatsApp channel attracted almost 4,000 followers within hours of being announced today

Asked in December if he had any access to the WhatsApps he sent during the crisis, Mr Sunak said: 'No, I don't, I've changed my phone multiple times over the past few years and, as that has happened, the messages have not come across.

'As you said, I'm not a prolific user of WhatsApp in the first instance – primarily communication with my private office and obviously anything that was of significance through those conversations or exchanges would have been recorded officially by my civil servants as one would expect.

'

Mr Sunak is not the only senior politician to have struggled to submit their WhatsApps to the Covid Inquiry.

About 5,000 messages, from January to June 2020, on the phone of former PM Boris Johnson were also unavailable.

'I don't know the exact reason, but it looks as though it's something to do with the app going down and then coming up again, but somehow automatically erasing all the things between that date when it went down and the moment when it was last backed up,' Mr Johnson told the inquiry last year.

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's former first minister, was last week revealed to have had all her WhatsApp messages from the Covid crisis deleted.

In response to No10's announcement of the Government's new WhatsApp channel, one Twitter/X user posted: 'Can't see the point in this Government WhatsApp channel. Won't they keep deleting the messages?'

Another asked: 'Erm, is the Prime Minister going to be live-streaming the deleting of all his WhatsApps?' 

A third wrote: 'You found all of Rishi's lost messages?'

The UK Government's new WhatsApp channel attracted almost 4,000 followers within hours of being announced today.

The Cabinet Office explained it would 'focus on reiterating important information which is relevant directly to the public in areas like updating on public services, news updates that affect a large part of the population or pointing to new guidance and public resources'.

From tomorrow, followers of the channel will be notified that they can get discounted rail tickets from the 'Great British Rail Sale'.

They can also expect to receive information on extra support like cost-of-living payments, Government-linked discounts or childcare help.

The channel will also be used to share information from organisations such as the UK Health Security Agency.

The Cabinet Office offered a reassurance the channel would not be used for political or campaign purposes and would be managed by officials and not ministers.

Alex Burghart, a minister at the department, said: 'We are always looking for new ways to communicate with the public.

'WhatsApp is a hugely popular platform in the UK so we hope our new and entirely opt-in WhatsApp channel will be a useful way of providing people with updates from the government.

'We're looking forward to seeing how people respond to this service and will develop it over time based on users' feedback.'

The Government appeared to have set up the WhatsApp channel so only six 'default' reactions can be used to respond to messages.

This prevents followers from using emojis such as a middle finger to react to updates.