To get to the truth about Covid, we need full transparency from the SNP - Murdo Fraser

Not keeping proper records is the norm for the SNP, and those they do keep they are reluctant to reveal

One of the things the SNP continually try to convince us all of is that we are naturally morally superior to our neighbours south of the Border. Holyrood, they claim, has higher standards than those at Westminster.

Something they ought to have been able to use to prove their point was the expletive-ridden testimony of the ghastly Dominic Cummings at last week’s UK Covid inquiry in London. He exposed his own megalomania and the weaknesses of the Downing Street operation.

The then Prime Minister’s spokesman, Lee Cain, telling us that Covid was the wrong kind of crisis for his boss, Boris Johnson’s, skillset, was damning. It was a moment when old wounds were opened. But that is the very reason the SNP leadership cannot use them in evidence.

However distressing the testimony was, it was open. Mr Cummings may have a foul turn of phrase, but it was recorded on emails made available to the UK inquiry. In contrast, it would appear that the Scottish Government may have covered its tracks from the very beginning of the pandemic.

It has been reported that National Clinical Director Jason Leitch may have deleted his WhatsApp messages every day. Nicola Sturgeon has refused to comment on how many messages she may or may not have deleted.

It is deeply odd – deeply disturbing – that as a matter of routine Scottish ministers and senior officials may have destroyed important evidence as to what lay behind their decision-making.

At the start of the unprecedented journey that was the Covid crisis you would have thought that ministers would have wished to keep an immaculate record of their decision-making not just for the public, but so that they themselves could refer to it. This suggests an administration instinctively opposed to any sort of transparency.

Remember Ms Sturgeon was so keen to keep the public informed that she essentially had her own daily television show from which she also doubtless benefitted politically. But it is strange that despite that there appear to be no documents available under freedom of information from which she was briefed.

If there were we could have seen, for example, what made her make the remarkable claim at one point that she had almost eradicated Covid in Scotland – but for poor decision-making south of the border by the Transport Secretary.

You would have thought that a politician who has apparently received a £75,000 advance for her memoirs would have kept some notes, particularly considering the lapses in her memory which we saw in the Alex Salmond inquiry.

All of this is now a major problem for the ‘continuity candidate’, First Minister Humza Yousaf. Caught off guard when counsel to the inquiry Jamie Dawson KC said that despite all the promises of transparency, the Scottish Government had retained ‘very few’ of the records they wanted to look at.

The First Minister’s belated response is to produce what he calls ‘reams of messages’. By that, he means a lot. He wants to give the impression that he will almost swamp the two inquiries with evidence and facts. But what he cannot say is that his government will hand over everything both inquiries want to know.

The First Minister’s leadership rival, Kate Forbes, retained all of her messages and has handed them over to the inquiry. The Scottish Government will only hand over messages where there was a civil servant involved. One-to-one conversations between ministers will remain private and there will be no messages from any political WhatsApp group. This rather undermines Economy Secretary Neil Gray’s claim that he and his colleagues, “have nothing to hide”. Perhaps he can say that with such confidence because they have no records to reveal – records which were either never taken, or have long since been destroyed.

As many journalists and opposition politicians know, this Scottish Government will do almost anything to keep its secrets. Freedom of information requests are frequently refused or delayed, or when documents finally are released they are often so heavily redacted as to be of no use.

We can all remember when they claimed they couldn’t find crucial documents about their botched attempt to build ferries. Or when Alex Salmond went to court to prevent information about his plans for a local income tax from being revealed before an election. Or that legal advice he had on an independent Scotland joining the EU that didn’t actually exist.

Not keeping proper records is the norm for the SNP, and those they do keep they are reluctant to reveal. But the two Covid inquiries north and south of the Border could finally undermine them.

For Nicola Sturgeon the pandemic was seen as a political opportunity. As ever, comparisons with England were more important than what was right for Scotland, which is why restrictions here were longer and more severe.

But the Scottish Government will have to explain to the families of the victims why they took the decisions they did. Why they decided to put people with the virus into care homes. Why they delayed telling us all about the first outbreak in Edinburgh in the first place.

And however much they may enjoy what is happening south of the Border, the damage done to reputations of old political foes, the theatre of it, that will be in sharp contrast to the lack of candour from the Scottish Government. Continuing to hide the truth from the Scottish people is not the sort of continuity we can stand from Humza Yousaf.

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