Deleted Whatsapps scandal shows pandemic response can still damage both Governments

Who hasn’t deleted messages ahead of an inquiry?

Jason Leitch, a serious person for serious times, appeared regularly at the televised Covid briefings, as an informed and trusted expert. He did so alongside Nicola Sturgeon, a First Minister so good at her job she has been nominated for Scottish Politician of the year, presumably just for retiring.

Watching the briefings during that miserable period, I thought many things about the experts guiding Scotland, that they were reassuring, competent, though perhaps a little too lax in their language, not least when Prof Leitch labelled Covid tests “rubbish”.

But not once during that time did I think to compare him with Rebekah Vardy, at least until it was claimed his WhatsApp messages cannot be handed to the Covid inquiries as they were deleted every day.

If you somehow missed it, Ms Vardy is best known for the “Wagatha Christie” trial, a scandal that saw Coleen Rooney, the wife of Wayne, allege her private Instagram posts were being leaked to The Sun.

Suing for defamation, so confident was Ms Vardy in her case, it was claimed her agent dropped her phone in the North Sea as part of a concerted effort to destroy evidence, with the Whatsapp messages now unavailable.

Now Prof Leitch has not done that, it would be too extreme, but allegedly having a daily dunk of messages into the proverbial abyss, ensuring we don’t know what was said or when. Whereas normal people delete messages with typos or drunk declarations of love, political figures wipe out entire pandemic responses, because there is absolutely nothing to see here.

Things aren’t helped by the First Minister Humza Yousaf’s promise that “any material that is asked for… will absolutely be handed over to the Covid Inquiries and handed over to them in full”. Presumably he didn’t take into account the daily purge.

All this serves as a reminder that, while the pandemic is broadly over, its impact is still a threat to trust in Government, with the ongoing inquiries capable of hurting both governing parties, irrespective of new leadership.This isn’t an issue exclusive to Prof Leitch and the Scottish Government, with Westminster figures also rushing to the side of barges to throw away evidence.

The Prime Minister had his own Whatsapp scandal, failing to hand over his messages from his time as chancellor to the Covid inquiry despite a high court ruling that ministers should disclose their communications for scrutiny. He insisted he “did not have access” to the messages as he’d changed his phone several times and failed to back them up. Given the role Eat Out To Help Out had in spreading the disease, you would suspect his messages are the least of his concerns.Then there’s Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings who have handed their evidence over, with the latter due to give evidence next week. Former Chancellor George Osborne has claimed both men sent “disgusting and misogynistic” WhatsApps, which if correct, will raise further questions for Mr Sunak about the Government he was so integral in running.

Deleting messages is not unique to reality stars, nor unheard of in politicians, but shows how clear the division is between what both want to show us and what really is going on behind the scenes.