Covid inquiry stay – Nicola Sturgeon admits deleting WhatsApp messages | EUROtoday

Nicola Sturgeon advised the UK Covid-19 inquiry that she used a private cellphone to conduct authorities enterprise.

She mentioned she used a private cellphone as a result of she didn’t need to use a number of gadgets, as a result of dangers related to dropping a cellphone.

Jamie Dawson KC put it to her if it was applicable to do this not on a government-issued cellphone.

Ms Sturgeon mentioned it had by no means been urged to her that it was not applicable.

Nicola Sturgeon mentioned she deleted her WhatsApp messages.

She advised the inquiry that it was “not my style and it’s never been my practice” to make use of WhatsApp “because it’s not a helpful process in reaching decisions”.

She mentioned her WhatsApp messages “weren’t retained” somewhat than deleted.

Jamie Dawson KC requested Ms Sturgeon: “But did you delete them?”

Ms Sturgeon mentioned: “Yes, in the manner I have set out.”

Nicola Sturgeon mentioned she “perhaps shouldn’t have” given professor Devi Sridhar an SNP e mail tackle.

The inquiry noticed messages between the pair the place Ms Sturgeon gave prof Sridhar an SNP e mail tackle in addition to a Scottish authorities e mail tackle.

She mentioned: “On reflection perhaps I shouldn’t have done that.

“But if I had been in any way trying to direct her to a private email address, I doubt if I would have put my government email address in there as well.”

Nicola Sturgeon mentioned she was not “particularly conscious” of WhatsApp teams the place officers had been exchanging data.

She mentioned she had “never seen messages before” by which Ken Thomson reminded civil servants within the group chat the place the “clear chat” perform was and that “plausible deniability is my middle name”.

Ms Sturgeon mentioned she noticed the dialogue as “light-hearted” and that she would learn that as him reminding individuals to be skilled on WhatsApp.

She added that the civil servants within the Covid outbreak group chat had been public servants of the “utmost integrity”.

Nicola Sturgeon mentioned a curfew for hospitality venues with one among her high aides, messages proven to the Covid inquiry reveal.

The former first minister mentioned a 6pm curfew for eating places in components of Scotland with Liz Lloyd, who served as her chief of employees on the time.

“Ok we should prob stick with 6 – it’s all so random. But I think we need to be prepared for a bit of a backlash”, she wrote in one of many messages.

She was responding to a message from ms Lloyd, which mentioned: “That’s why I would stick with 6pm. But if you want to compromise it would be about giving people regulated places to be in the winter, rather than unregulated homes – but no alcohol because it changes behaviour.”

Nicola Sturgeon mentioned that Scottish authorities selections made through the pandemic couldn’t be saved secret, even when ministers had needed to.

She mentioned: “I would like to give an assurance to the inquiry that contrary to any desire on the part of me or my government to keep things secret, I would suggest the opposite was the case during the pandemic.

“We went to great lengths to communicate, not just the decisions – I took a view very early on in the pandemic, it’s for others to judge whether it was right or wrong, that if we were to achieve a level of compliance with the restrictions that we were to achieve a level of compliance with the restrictions we were asking them to do but why we were doing it.”

WhatsApp messages exchanged between Nicola Sturgeon and her former chief of employees Liz Lloyd present Ms Sturgeon telling Ms Lloyd she was “having a crisis of decision making” over hospitality.

Ms Sturgeon advised the inquiry it was one thing she would have “preferred not to be” on the general public document.

The messages between Ms Sturgeon and Ms Lloyd present in-depth dialogue about what occasions to permit eating places to remain open till.

Ms Sturgeon wrote: “I am having a bit of a crisis in decision making in hospitality, not helped by the fact I haven’t slept. The public health argument says stick with 6pm/no alcohol for level 3. But I suspect the industry will go mad – and I worry we could derail debate.”

Ms Sturgeon additionally mentioned there was “nothing to show” that they’d listened to business on the matter.

Nicola Sturgeon mentioned the impression of selections she made all through the Covid-19 pandemic will keep along with her without end.

She mentioned she needed to make sure that “those who come after me in politics have the benefit of the learning, the things my government did right and the things that my government that were not right or with hindsight that we wish we had done differently.

“I cannot say strongly enough how important that is to me.

“These decisions were of a magnitude beyond what I had ever experienced, and that is true of decision-makers everywhere and the impact of them I think about literally every day.

“I want this inquiry and the Scottish inquiry to scrutinise those decisions so that we can learn and future governments can learn lessons from them.”

Nicola Sturgeon mentioned she didn’t recall receiving an e mail from Lesley Fraser and Kenneth Thomson concerning the significance of document retention of fabric related to the work of the inquiry.

Ms Sturgeon was requested by senior counsel to the inquiry, Jamie Dawson, if she recalled receiving that e mail on August 3 2021.

She answered: “I do not as far as I am aware, I did not receive that.”

Mr Dawson requested: “You recall, I would imagine, in a general sense that such a notification was sent out?”

Ms Sturgeon mentioned: “I would say this: that I don’t think I would have required to see that to know that matters that were relevant to know the matters that were relevant.”

The former first minister mentioned she had “always assumed there would be a public inquiry”.