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Nicola Sturgeon is in the centre of another storm – this time over Covid messages (Image: Getty)
Disgraced Nicola Sturgeon has one key question she needs to answer, according to a former Secretary of State for Scotland, as the former First Minister once again finds herself embroiled in a scandal.
This time, the probing questions relate to the deleting of messages sent during the pandemic.
Ms Sturgeon was clear during the Coronavirus crisis that all communications would be handed over to the Scottish and UK Covid inquiries. However it has since emerged that many of her WhatsApp messages have been wiped.
The cloud of doubt grew darker still when on Monday, First Minster Humza Yousaf said that government policy had been to delete messages but that he had defied said policy and kept his communications.
His claim that it had been the Scottish Government’s policy to delete messages has been called into question by critics.
Nicola Sturgeon said she would hand over messages during a Covid inquiry (Image: Getty)
Now Brian Wilson, who held five ministerial positions under Tony Blair, including Secretary of State for Scotland, says the former SNP leader must set the record straight on why her messages were cleared, when, and when she knew they had been dispensed with.
Mr Wilson’s intervention came following the resurfacing of a video in which Ms Sturgeon guaranteed that all her messages would be handed over.
She made the comments at a Covid briefing in August 2021 when announcing the inquiry. Asked by Channel Four’s Ciaran Jenkins if she would vow that she would “disclose emails, WhatsApps, private emails if you’ve been using them”, Ms Sturgeon responded: “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.”
‘Can you guarantee to the bereaved families that you will disclose emails, WhatsApps, private emails if you’ve been using them. Whatever. That nothing will be off limits in this inquiry?’
My question to @NicolaSturgeon August 2021
pic.twitter.com/OJDCBTESCe
— Ciaran Jenkins (@C4Ciaran) October 29, 2023 Experience the Express like never before Advert-free experience without interruptions. Rocket-fast speedy loading pages. Exclusive & Unlimited access to all our content.
Writing in the Herald, Mr Wilson said he thinks lawyers will want to know if Ms Sturgeon knew her messages had been deleted at the time she was speaking to the Channel 4 journalist. He said: “The reply was vintage Sturgeon, opening with a patronising jibe towards Mr Jenkins about his understanding of statutory public inquiries and wrapped in subsequent verbiage.
“But somewhere in the middle was the unambiguous assurance ‘for the avoidance of doubt’ that she would give the guarantee he asked for – WhatsApps and all. One question lawyers are likely to return to is whether, at the point of that reply, she was well aware that messages referred to by Mr Jenkins had been long since consigned to the ether by herself and those around her.”
Ms Sturgeon has to date insisted she will fully co-operate with the Covid inquiry.
A spokeswoman for the former First Minister said: “Nicola will continue to provide all information requested by the inquiry that she holds and will continue to cooperate fully with both the UK and Scottish Covid inquiries. She has recently submitted her third written statement to the UK inquiry – running to around 200 pages – and expects to give oral evidence again next year when she will answer all questions put to her.”
However, Wilson dismissed that argument as a “meaningless numbers game”. He added: “The Covid years were not ‘normal times’.
“It could never have been clearer that accountability would follow at some stage for decisions taken, by both UK and Scottish governments. Anyone who destroyed evidence of communications between decision-making parties knew they were doing something highly improper.
“If Nicola Sturgeon did not understand this, after over a decade in government, it surely must have occurred to her in May 2020 when she confirmed there would be a Scottish public inquiry. It should be recalled that this was when under pressure about two issues where there was a prima facie case that the Scottish Government was in serious error.
“The first was its failure to make public the Nike outbreak in Edinburgh which, if known about, would have raised the probability of an earlier lockdown. The second was the transfer of hospital patients into care homes, which was already being seriously challenged.”
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