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.
Emotions running high once more
Nicola Sturgeon again fought back tears as she said she takes it “very personally” when her motives behind actions during the pandemic are questioned.
Mr Dawson put it to Ms Sturgeon she wanted to be “the person who had driven Covid out of Scotland”, which she rejected.
The former first minister said: “I hoped that the decisions my government would take would keep Covid at the lowest possible level, so that it took the lives of fewer people, minimised the disruption to people’s livelihoods and the education of children.
“I accept that there will be genuine and serious scrutiny of the content of decisions that were taken, and some of those decisions I wish I had taken, my government, had taken differently, some – I think – were right.
“My motives in this were only ever about trying to do the right thing to minimise the overall harm that the virus was doing.
“The toll it took, in Scotland, as in other parts of the UK, was far too high, so I didn’t do that as successfully as I wish I was able to, but perhaps in some ways the measures we took had some impact.”
Heart and soul
Nicola SturgeonPeople will make their own judgements about me, about my government, about my decisions, but for as long as I live I will carry the impact of these decisions, I will carry regret at the decisions and judgements I got wrong, but I will always know in my heart and in my soul that my instincts and my motivation was nothing other than trying to do the best in the face of this pandemic.
On the age-standardised mortality measure [...] the deaths in Scotland were significantly lower than in other parts of the UK.
Far, far too high, but that says to me that even if it was only at the margins, our decision making managed to minimise the harm to some extent, and that as my duty.
"The story of Covid in Scotland is the story of the hubris of Nicola Sturgeon is it not?", Mr Dawson asks.
"No, I do not believe that to be the case," a visibly upset Ms Sturgeon says.
"I wish with every fibre of my being that the decisions my government have been able tot ake could have reduced the number of people in Scotland who did lose someone to Covid and I'm deeply sorry to each ad every bereaved person."
Jamie Dawson KC
Interesting to note that searches for 'Jamie Dawson' have shot up during his rather brutal line of questioning - he keeps making harsh assertions and essentially asking Sturgeon to affirm they are true.
He's waited until right at the end of the six hour hearing to put a visibly tiring Sturgeon through this line of questioning too.
As it so happens, we anticipated this, and already have a handy guide to the KC:
Tears in the public gallery
A member of the public is visibly crying in the gallery while Sturgeon is asked about care home deaths, by a lawyer representing the Scottish Covid Bereaved group.
An emotional day all round.
Turn back the clock
Nicola Sturgeon has said she wishes she could “turn back the clock” to prevent the loss of lives in care homes due to Covid-19.
The former first minister, under questioning from Kevin Maccaffery, representing the Scottish Covid Bereaved group, was asked what she would have done differently in her approach to care homes, saying she would have “desperately” sought a better way to manage the situation of elderly people in hospital who had no medical need to be there.
“I would do everything in my power and I wish I could turn the clock back and do different things that would have reduced the loss of life in care homes,” she said.
She added that leaving people in hospitals would not be without risk.
“I desperately wish we could have had the ability to do things in a way that didn’t result in the outcome that did materialise,” she said.
That's all for now
Nicola Sturgeon's eye-opening, and at times eye-watering, testimony has come to end.
We're expecting a lot of reaction and analysis to come.
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