UK Covid inquiry: Nicola Sturgeon’s Covid WhatsApp messages ‘all deleted’

Image source, PA Media

All Nicola Sturgeon’s WhatsApp messages during the pandemic appear to have been deleted, the Covid inquiry has heard.

Jamie Dawson KC, counsel to the inquiry, said the former first minister appeared to “have retained no messages whatsoever”.

The hearing in Edinburgh was also told that her deputy John Swinney’s WhatsApp messaging was set to auto-delete.

Ms Sturgeon has previously said she has “nothing to hide” but not clarified if her WhatsApp messaged were deleted.

The UK Covid inquiry, which is sitting in Scotland for three weeks, was taking evidence from senior civil servant Lesley Fraser, director general corporate at the Scottish government.

Ms Fraser said relatively new technologies such as Zoom were being used during the pandemic and that records may not have been retained in the way they might be now, when a digital footprint is more likely to be created.

Mr Dawson then questioned her about a table supplied by the Scottish government last October summarising ministers’ use of notebooks, retention of messages and other forms of communication.

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.”

Ms Fraser replied: “That’s what that indicates to me.”

She also confirmed that the Scottish government had been unable to supply Ms Sturgeon’s messages from its corporate record.

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption, The inquiry was told former deputy first minister John Swinney used an auto-delete function for his messages

The documents indicated that former Deputy First Minister John Swinney’s messages were either deleted manually or by using the app’s auto-delete function.

Ms Fraser said ministers may have managed their messages involving their private offices in such a way in order to stop the messaging becoming “unmanageable”.

She said some messages were simply “banter” that did not need to be retained, and others may have been lost when phones were upgraded.

The inquiry also heard from retired civil servant Ken Thomson who said electronic messaging grew very rapidly during the pandemic.

He said the policy was to retain a formal record of decision-making but many messages were simply exchanges of information.

He was asked about posts he made in a “Covid outbreak group” chat in August 2020, which included the deputy chief medial officer and national clinical director Jason Leitch.

Image caption, The inquiry heard about WhatsApp chats involving national clinical director Jason Leitch

In it he reminds them the messages are “FOI discoverable” and urges participants to use the “clear chat” button.

He also remarks: “Plausible deniability is my middle name”.

Mr Thomson denied this was an attempt to defeat requests under Freedom of Information laws.

He suggested private information might be disclosed in such chats and that it was policy to transfer salient information to the public record.

In another WhatsApp group post in May 2021, he wrote: “I feel moved at this point to tell you that this chat is FOI-recoverable.” He includes an emoji with a zipped mouth.

Two minutes later Prof Jason Leitch, responded: “WhatsApp deletion is a pre-bed ritual.”

‘Take a deep breath’

Mr Thomson denied there was a culture among Covid decision-makers of deleting messages to prevent them coming into the public domain.

He said the context of the discussion was there was a new Covid variant, and that a tweet from a “diehard” Rangers supporter was circulating, saying there would be no risk from a forthcoming fans’ march due to take place against official regulations.

He said he was in an “oblique way” urging Mr Leitch to “take a deep breath” before commenting on the tweet in the WhatsApp discussion.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said Ms Sturgeon and Mr Swinney had “huge questions” to answer over their conduct.

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

He said secrecy and evasion had been “the hallmarks” of her government, and added: “This shameful cover-up, which amounts to a digital torching of vital evidence, is the most scandalous example of it.”

Scottish Labour’s Jackie Baillie said Ms Sturgeon had gone back on undertakings made in 2021 that correspondence would be kept and handed over to future inquiries.

“Nicola Sturgeon has completely broken her promise to the people of Scotland,” she said.

Ms Sturgeon is due to give evidence to the inquiry during its evidence sessions in Scotland in the coming weeks.