Why Nicola Sturgeon has serious questions to answer over deleted Covid WhatsApps

The UK Covid Inquiry heard neither she nor her former deputy, John Swinney, kept any messages

The UK Covid Inquiry is already shining an unforgiving light into Scotland’s corridors of power – and we’ve not even heard from the key political players yet.

A hearing in Edinburgh on Friday was told both Nicola Sturgeon and her former deputy, John Swinney, failed to retain any of their pandemic WhatsApp messages.

Ms Sturgeon’s were deleted “in routine tidying up of inboxes or changes of phones”, according to information provided by the Scottish Government, while Mr Swinney used an auto-delete function.

Nicola Sturgeon speaks during a press conference at Bute House where she announced she would stand down as First Minister of Scotland. Picture: Jane Barlow - Pool/Getty Images

Meanwhile, the inquiry heard Jason Leitch, the national clinical director, told civil servants in one messaging group: “WhatsApp deletion is a pre-bed ritual."

The Scottish Government previously denied Prof Leitch – a TV regular during the pandemic – had deleted his WhatsApp messages daily, so this revelation is particularly awkward for it. Was he just kidding, then?

There were more eye-popping messages from Ken Thomson, a retired senior civil servant.

In May 2021, he reminded one chat group that it was “FOI [freedom of information] recoverable”, before posting an emoji with a zip across its mouth. In August 2020, he pointed another towards the “clear chat” button. “Plausible deniability are my middle names,” he wrote. “Now clear it again!”

The UK inquiry is sitting in Scotland for three weeks. There are two more to go, and Ms Sturgeon, Mr Swinney and Prof Leitch are all due to give evidence in person. They will have serious questions to answer.

It’s worth remembering Ms Sturgeon was talking about a potential inquiry into the pandemic as early as May 2020. “Of course there will be a public inquiry into this whole crisis and every aspect of the crisis,” she told MSPs back then.

The separate Scottish inquiry was officially announced in August the following year. That same month, Ms Sturgeon was asked by a journalist if she could guarantee to bereaved families that she would disclose all her personal emails and WhatsApps.

Her reply bordered on the patronising. “I think if you understand statutory public inquiries, you would know that even if I wasn't prepared to give that assurance – which for the avoidance of doubt, I am – then I wouldn’t have the ability,” she said. “This will be a judge-led, statutory public inquiry.”

And yet here we are, almost two-and-a-half years later, and those WhatsApps are nowhere to be seen. We will never know what insights and information they contained about one of the most extraordinary, disruptive events in modern history.

The Scottish Government’s position is that all pertinent points and decisions from those chats should have been recorded using official channels. But to discover what our decision-makers really thought and felt during those tumultuous months, you need the actual messages.

Lawyer Aamer Anwar, representing the Scottish Covid Bereaved, describes the latest development as a "devastating betrayal of the many promises made by the Scottish Government for full transparency and disclosure”.

Many will agree. Ms Sturgeon, Mr Swinney and others will have a chance to explain themselves very shortly.