Nicola Sturgeon at Covid Inquiry Live: Former First Minister at inquiry amid scrutiny around WhatsApp messages
Former First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon is giving evidence at the UK Covid Inquiry amid ongoing scrutiny around the deleted WhatsApp messages.
Keep up to date with every moment with The Scotsman live blog.
Formality
Sturgeon says she had informal chats, but said there was "a high degree of formality" when making Scottish Government decisions.
“I have not said and I’m not saying today that I never used informal means of communication," she said.
"What I am saying is that I did so very rarely and not to discuss issues of substance or anything that could be described as decision making.
“There was a high degree of formality around the decision making of the Scottish Government.”
Sturgeon's MOT
An unlikely tidbit from today's hearing is going viral on Twitter/X - as per usual for that site it's probably untrue.
WhatsApps "open to different interpretations"
Sturgeon says that the informal nature of WhatsApps means some of the language is open to interpretation:
“When people are sending messages on WhatsApp, they don’t think, including me and therefore messages, when they are looked back at later on, can be open to different interpretations because people haven’t really thought about the words they’re using," she said.
I wrote about this during Professor Jason Leitch's testimony last week.
"The running theme of the UK Covid Inquiry revelations so far has been that behind the politically-managed personas and media appearances, the decision makers and advisers at the heart of the pandemic response were very human - warts and all." - You can read that here.
The UK Covid Inquiry's Twitter/X
More on the hell site that is Twitter/X getting people in trouble - it has emerged that the UK Covid Inquiry's Twitter account is following just one account: an anti-SNP profile called 'DownWithTheSNP'.
The UK Covid Inquiry press office say this was a mistake and have unfollowed.
"The UK Covid-19 Inquiry is independent, apolitical and only reaches conclusions once all the evidence has been thoroughly examined. The Inquiry's @covidinquiryuk X account follows no other accounts - any prior follows were in error," a spokesperson said.
Hospitality rules were "random"
Sturgeon is shown messages between herself and her former aide Liz Lloyd, showing them making a decision on when bars/pubs can open in October 2020.
They to-and-fro between 6pm and 8pm, before Sturgeon says: "We should prob [sic] stick with 6 - it's all so random. But I think we need to be prepared for a bit of a backlash."
"As it stands, there's nothing we can point to to say we've listened to industry," she adds.
Public record
Sturgeon insists that the discussion she had over WhatsApp with her chief of staff Liz Lloyd regarding hospitality closure times would be reflected in the public record.
She said: “I look at this and I don’t consider that there is anything in that, wouldn’t be reflected through the decision making and the evidence of the decision making of the government and undoubtedly hospitality and the impact on hospitality.”
Culture of "plausible deniability"
Sturgeon says she has “never seen messages before” in which Ken Thomson reminded civil servants in the group chat where the “clear chat” function was and that “plausible deniability is my middle name”.
Jamie Dawson KC asks: "If there was a culture of plausible deniability, a culture of deleting messages that would be recoverable under FOI requests, a culture of suggesting in order to get out of FOI requests that documents are not held centrally, these would be abhorrent revelations, yes?"
To which Sturgeon replies: "Absolutely, and to be be very clear that is not the culture that I believe existed in the Scottish Government during my time as First Minister, or indeed in my time as Deputy First Minister."
Bit of detail from our very own Alistair Grant, who writes:
"Nicola Sturgeon has told the UK Covid Inquiry she “very rarely” used WhatsApp and other informal messaging services, as she confirmed she deleted messages.
"The former first minister said she only exchanged WhatsApps with “a handful of people”, including Liz Lloyd, her former chief of staff, and Humza Yousaf.
"Both Ms Lloyd and Mr Yousaf, who is now the First Minister, have handed over messages to the inquiry.
"Ms Sturgeon did not retain any WhatsApps on her own device." - Read more here.
'Not retained' or deleted? Is there a difference?
Nicola Sturgeon said she deleted her WhatsApp messages, but only after being pressed on the matter by Jamie Dawson KC.
She told the inquiry that it was “not my style and it’s never been my practice” to use WhatsApp “because it’s not a helpful process in reaching decisions”.
She said her WhatsApp messages “weren’t retained” rather than deleted.
Mr Dawson then asked Ms Sturgeon: “But did you delete them?”
“Yes, in the manner I have set out," Ms Sturgeon said.
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