All Nicola Sturgeon’s pandemic WhatsApp messages deleted, Covid Inquiry hears

All Nicola Sturgeon’s pandemic WhatsApp messages have been deleted, the Covid Inquiry has heard.

At a hearing in Edinburgh, the official investigation into the crisis was told that the former first minister of Scotland, had “retained no messages whatsoever”.

Jamie Dawson KC, counsel to the inquiry, made reference to a document provided by the Scottish Government about what WhatsApp messages it could provide, and said that all Ms Sturgeon’s messages had been deleted.

He said: “Under the box ‘Nicola Sturgeon’, it says that messages were not retained, they were deleted in routine tidying up of inboxes or changes of phones, unable to retrieve messages.

“What that tends to suggest is at the time that request was made Nicola Sturgeon, the former first minister of Scotland, had retained no messages whatsoever in connection with her management of the pandemic.”

Lesley Fraser, the director general corporate of the Scottish government, agreed saying: “That’s what that indicates to me.”

Ms Sturgeon had repeatedly refused to reveal whether she deleted messages.

A spokesman for the ex-SNP leader said on Thursday: “In the interests of everyone who has been impacted by the Covid pandemic, Nicola is committed to full transparency to both the UK and Scottish Covid inquiries.

“Any messages she had, she handled and dealt with in line with the Scottish Government’s policies. Nicola has provided a number of written statements to the UK inquiry – totalling hundreds of pages – and welcomes the opportunity to give oral evidence to the inquiry again this month when she will answer all questions put to her.”

The Covid inquiry is currently carrying out three weeks of hearings focusing on decisions in Scotland during the pandemic, with Ms Sturgeon set to be the star witness.

The inquiry has been told 28,000 messages from 85 WhatsApp groups had been handed over to Baroness Hallett and her team.

Last month Rishi Sunak said he had no messages remaining from the pandemic period. The prime minister said he was not advised that he should save WhatsApp messages from his phone.

Boris Johnson also told the inquiry he had been unable to retrieve his own WhatsApp messages for a crucial period at the beginning of the crisis, suggesting this was because his phone had been reset.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said: “Nicola Sturgeon and (her deputy) John Swinney have huge questions to answer over their conduct in the wake of this devastating revelation.

“By deleting all their WhatsApp messages, they defied the inquiry’s clear instructions from June 2021 that all relevant messages had to be retained.

“Their actions may be illegal and beg a very simple question: what were they trying to hide? Shamefully and outrageously for families of those who died during the pandemic, we may never know.

“Nicola Sturgeon’s reputation, which has been tarnished by a series of scandals in the last year, now lies in tatters. Secrecy and evasion were the hallmarks of her government – and this shameful cover-up, which amounts to a digital torching of vital evidence, is the most scandalous example of it. “