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.
Government was not "asleep at the wheel"
Sturgeon has denied that the Scottish Government was "asleep at the wheel" during the nation's early pandemic response.
Mr Dawson asked: "What steps were being taken to protect the vulnerable part of Scotland's population?"
Ms Sturgeon replied: "All of the work we were doing to understand Covid, to make sure we were preparing and scaling up facilities like testing, making sure that we were in a position to supply PPE, and I know there were many concerns raised about all of these things, I'm not suggesting all of that worked perfectly.
"All of that was designed to protect, as far as it was possible to do in the face of a pandemic, the entire population and within that those who were beginning to understand they were going to be more vulnerable to a virus of this nature.
"It was part and parcel of all the work we were doing.
Mr Dawson then asked: "At this stage the Scottish Government was asleep at the wheel, wasn't it Ms Sturgeon?"
"No," the First Minister replies.
That style of questioning - putting forward accusations as an almost rhetorical question - is commonly heard in criminal courts, where the accused is asked to deny accusations made by the prosecution.
It's the first time we've heard Mr Dawson question someone like this during the Scottish hearings of the Covid Inquiry.
Mass Gatherings
Nicola Sturgeon has denied that she “jumped the gun” on a decision to ban mass gatherings in March 2020.
She said the Scottish Government were “perfectly within our rights to take that decision” and she was “perfectly within my right” to announce the decision.
Earlier this week, Michael Gove told the Covid-19 inquiry that he believed Ms Sturgeon had jumped the gun on the move, but Ms Sturgeon told the inquiry she would “counter” that and that they were “going more slowly than we should have been”.
She said if she had a regret about the decision, it was that it had not been taken earlier.
The UK Covid Inquiry has previously heard, from Matt Hancock's testimony, that the UK Government knew about the fatality rate of Covid-19 way before it implemented lockdown measures.
Hancock told the inquiry that the UK Government learned Covid-19 had a 1per cent fatality rate on February 28.
If they had acted then, and locked down on March 2, Hancock said, they'd have saved 90 per cent of the lives lost during the first wave.
"There’s a doubling rate at this point, estimated, every three to four days. We would have been six doublings ahead of where we were, which means that fewer than a tenth of the number of people would have died in the first wave," he said.
Instead, they waited three weeks when they could have saved tens of thousands of more people, leaving little credibility for Gove's suggestion that the Scottish Government went too hard, too early.
UK Government was too slow
The UK Government may have communicated coronavirus measures “too slowly” rather than the Scottish Government doing so too quickly, Nicola Sturgeon says.
The former first minister was accused throughout the pandemic of attempting to undermine the UK Government by announcing decisions made on a four-nations basis before Boris Johnson was able to.
Ms Sturgeon announced a ban on mass gatherings at 3.20pm on March 12 2020 following a Cobra meeting, the inquiry heard.
She told the inquiry her responsibility was “to the Scottish people, not Boris Johnson”.
“I would put it that I communicated these things quickly, perhaps the UK Government were communicating them too slowly.”
She added: “Doing so with urgency at that point was required.”
Scottish independence
Dawson asks: "Is it possible for you to take decisions on any matter without seeing them through the prism of Scottish independence and your burning desire to achieve it?"
Ms Sturgeon replies: "Yes, I know for a fact it is, and if I ever doubted that before Covid, although I had other examples of doing that in the job of being First Minister, and health secretary before that.
"I have been in politics for 30 years, I have been a lifelong campaigner for independence. I don't think in my entire life have I ever thought less about politics generally and independence in particular than I did during the course of the pandemic."
She rebuts, very strongly, that some of her decisions were politically motivated. Again, a flare of emotion from Sturgeon when she is questioned on this.
Elsewhere in the world of politics, in that there London* to be exact, PMQs has been taking place.
Our Westminster Correspondent, Alexander Brown, has the analysis:
"For a few weeks now, Sir Keir Starmer has got the better of Rishi Sunak at Prime Minister’s Questions in the face of dire economic forecasts and Tory infighting over the Rwanda scheme.
"The Labour leader has managed to damage Mr Sunak by asking questions he can’t answer, combining a focus on detail with lines funny enough to go viral, broadening the reach of his party.
"However, at the latest session, Sir Keir struggled to land blows, despite bringing up the real case of an Iceland employee named Phil who is struggling to pay his mortgage." - Read more here.
Scottish Labour
Scottish Labour has waded in on Sturgeon's testimony at the UK Covid Inquiry:
Scottish Labour leader Anas SarwarThere is such a huge sense of betrayal, amongst the Scottish public. Nicola Sturgeon was someone that, regardless of where they sit on the political spectrum, they looked at during the Covid pandemic, particularly in contrast to Boris Johnson, and thought this was someone that was standing up, telling the truth and being straight up with them and trying to navigate the best way through the pandemic.
And I think there has been such a huge breach of that trust now, and such a sense of betrayal, that is going to rightfully anger so many people across the country.
The anger with Boris Johnson was the whole, in her own words, he was a clown, he was an idiot, he didn’t know what he was doing. No one makes that accusation of Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP. They knew what they were doing.
"Beating Boris is a low bar"
Some early comment for our columnist Kenny MacAskill:
"History will mark the Covid Inquiry as when the House of Continuity SNP finally burnt down. Flames had been licking around its former proprietor Nicola Sturgeon, as police investigations and controversy gathered at the door. But all would be well, said the new owners, there’s still the legacy of how she handled Covid.
"For sure, it’ll remain the case that she was better than Boris Johnson in addressing the pandemic as moderately better figures in mortality and other aspects disclose, especially in communication where she was far more articulate and surer-footed. But being better than Boris was always a very low bar." - Read more here.
An update from the wind and rain
I've been outside the warmth of the EICC to catch the Scottish Covid Bereaved's press conference, and to give an update on Sturgeon's testimony.
It was very windy.
The rain in Spain
Even if Nicola Sturgeon says she did not consider independence during pandemic decision making, the Deputy First Minister certainly did, as emails show:
The prism of indy
Nicola Sturgeon said she “knows for a fact” it is possible for her to make decisions without seeing them through the prism of independence.
She said she had not thought “less” about politics and independence than she did during the Covid-19 pandemic.
She said she wanted to assure the inquiry that none of the decisions she took were “influenced in any way” by political considerations or by trying to gain advantage in the goal of independence.
She said: “I was motivated solely by trying to do the best we could to keep people as safe as possible.
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.