Nicola Sturgeon: Former first minister fights back tears at UK Covid Inquiry as she denies seeking political advantage during pandemic

Ms Sturgeon said she felt an ‘overwhelming responsibility’ to do the best she could

Nicola Sturgeon fought back tears at the UK Covid Inquiry as she admitted “a large part” of her wishes she was never first minister during the pandemic.

Ms Sturgeon was also visibly emotional as she denied seeking political advantage during the crisis.

Giving evidence on Wednesday, she said she felt an “overwhelming responsibility” to do the best she could.

Nicola Sturgeon was visibly emotional as she gave evidence at the UK Covid Inquiry

Jamie Dawson KC, senior counsel to the inquiry, asked Ms Sturgeon if she shared the view of other witnesses that Mr Johnson was “the wrong prime minister for this crisis”.

Ms Sturgeon said: “Yes. Again, I’m risking here going further than I should and being reprimanded for sounding political – I’m not meaning to be, but I suppose I’m trying to put that into context where I don’t think I’m betraying any secrets here when I thought Boris Johnson was the wrong person to be prime minister full stop.”

Asked if she considered herself to be “precisely the right first minister for the job”, she said: “No, that’s not how I would have thought of it at all. I was the first minister when the pandemic struck.”

Fighting back tears, she added: “There’s a large part of me wishes that I hadn’t been, but I was and I wanted to be the best first minister I could be during that period. It’s for others to judge the extent to which I succeeded.”

Mr Dawson then asked if Ms Sturgeon saw a political opportunity in the contrast between her and Mr Johnson.

She said: “The answer I gave you a moment ago about Boris Johnson – I don’t remember thinking that in the moment. I’ve made the political comment about my views of Boris Johnson generally. In those early days of the pandemic, my view was, and my experience was, that we were all trying our best in almost impossible circumstances.

"To the next bit of your question, did I see an opportunity? I didn’t see an opportunity of any description in Covid. I saw a threat, a risk, a catastrophe.”

She said she felt fear in the early part of 2020, adding: “At times in those early days I felt overwhelmed by the scale of what we were dealing with, and perhaps more than anything I felt an overwhelming responsibility to do the best I could.

"The idea that in those horrendous days, weeks, I was thinking of a political opportunity I find – well, it’s just, it wasn’t true.”