Deleting Covid WhatsApp messages shows both contempt and calculation - Jackie Baillie MSP

Behind the contempt there must have been a calculation. As their thumbs ached from manually deleting WhatsApp messages from their phones, SNP Ministers and senior civil servants must been working out that it would be better to suffer the accusations of a cover-up over Covid than to have the public learn the actual truth of how their decisions were made.

But they have miscalculated. The scandal and the shame of attempting to whitewash the UK and Scottish covid inquiries will stain the SNP for years to come. To attempt to deliberately withhold evidence from phone communications after giving repeated assurances that would not be the case is a low from which personal reputations will never recover.

Having been confronted with public anger and threatened with legal action SNP Ministers are now trying to avalanche the Covid inquiries with the sheer volume of submissions. But quantity does not equal quality.

We have Jason Leitch, a senior member of the government, reported to have deleted his messages daily and the former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon writing a ‘war and peace’ submission of smoke and mirrors to the inquiries but unwilling to say that she also manually deleted her WhatsApp messages. It is a disgrace.

Scotland's First Minister Humza Yousaf faces more questions over Whats App messages deleted ahead of the public inquiries into the handling of the Covid pandemic, writes Jackie Baillie MSP. PIC: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire.

We believe the First Minister Humza Yousaf has actually misled parliament given the statements that he made in the chamber in June and indeed last week, where he confirmed that all officials past and present did comply with a “do not destroy” notice. That turns out not to be the case.

Mr Yousaf confirmed that everything had been handed over in full to the inquiries, a guarantee including all communications including WhatsApp and Signal messages. That also turns out not to be the case.

So we need to know if Scottish Government politicians and civil servants did not comply with a “do not destroy” notice issued by the UK Covid inquiry and then if politicians and senior officials did not comply with the Scottish Government's own document retention policy.

This is not an isolated incident. Key documents pertaining to governmental failures such as the ferry fiasco have a remarkable propensity to go missing.

At the start of the pandemic government ministers attempted to close off requests made under Freedom of Information laws. Over the years too many important meetings have mysteriously been held without civil servants taking a minute of their proceedings. There is an SNP culture of secrecy which has infected the government.

We know counsel to the UK Covid inquiry last week said WhatsApps were used to discuss the Covid response. That came from others who had contributed evidence to the inquiry so we know that they're important. We know that they provide valuable context to what was going on even if, as Nicola Sturgeon attempted to claim, they were not part of formal decision making.

But actually the most important thing for me is that withholding of evidence like this is disrespectful and insulting to bereaved families who lost loved ones to Covid.

They were promised answers by government, and it looks like information is deliberately being withheld. SNP Ministers have done their utmost to ensure that they do not co-operate meaningfully with either of the two inquiries. For that contempt, for that shoddy miscalculation, they will be judged.

Jackie Baillie is the MSP for Dumbarton and Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party