Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf has defended his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon amid the ongoing row over WhatsApp messages during the Covid pandemic, as the Conservatives insisted she would have broken the law if she had deleted key correspondence.
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said the “secretive approach” from the Scottish Government is treating families left bereaved by the virus “with contempt”.
Ms Sturgeon insisted this week that she has “nothing to hide”, but reports have claimed she destroyed messages.
Mr Ross hit out at an “auto-delete” policy he said had been introduced by the Scottish Government.
“This is the digital equivalent of building a bonfire to torch the evidence,” he said.
Raising the issue during First Minister’s Questions in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday, Mr Ross asked: “Why did the SNP bring in a policy to delete messages after they had been told to keep them?”
He recalled that former first minister Ms Sturgeon “went on television to say she couldn’t withhold messages even if she wanted to”.
But he told MSPs: “This week it was reported Nicola Sturgeon has deleted her WhatsApp messages.
“We know destroying or withholding evidence from an inquiry is illegal.
“Does Humza Yousaf accept that if Nicola Sturgeon or any Government minister has destroyed WhatsApp messages relevant to the inquiry, they would be breaking the law?”
Mr Yousaf replied: “In terms of accountability and transparency, Nicola Sturgeon stood up day after day, virtually every single day, did 250 media briefings, 70 parliamentary statements.”
He described that as “full accountability, full transparency” from Ms Sturgeon during the pandemic.
With the Scottish Government now in the process of handing over 14,000 WhatsApp messages to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, Mr Yousaf insisted his Government is “absolutely committed to being transparent, to being accountable”.
He added: “We want the truth to be heard, not just by the public but particularly by the families who were bereaved by Covid.”
The row over the messages was sparked last week when Jamie Dawson KC, counsel to the UK inquiry, said “no messages” from within the Scottish Government had yet been provided.
However now a legal notice has been given, the Holyrood Government is in the process of handing over messages.
Mr Yousaf said: “On top of those 14,000 messages, when I submit my final statement I will be handing over many messages, not just with Cabinet secretaries, not just with ministers, with UK Government ministers, with opposition politicians I communicated with across the chamber.
“I will be doing so unredacted, because this Government believes in accountability.”
Separate public inquiries have been set up by the Scottish and UK governments to examine the response to Covid, and the First Minister said: “I can give an absolute commitment the Scottish Government will fully co-operate with both inquiries.”
But Mr Ross insisted: “We don’t know what the truth is because messages have been deleted. And they have been deleted because of a policy of the SNP Government.
“That policy means they can cherry-pick the information the inquiry sees. Discussions may have been destroyed by their auto-delete policy.
“Any uncomfortable information may be lost, never to see the light of day.”
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar also challenged the First Minister on the issue, saying Mr Yousaf gave “no equivocation, no caveats, no grey areas” when he had confirmed in June that his Government would hand over messages to the inquiry.
Mr Sarwar added: “We now know messages have been deleted.
“This is about the conduct of the Scottish Government, so can the First Minister tell us, of the 70 ministers and officials, how many have failed to comply with a do-not-destroy notice and how many have deleted messages?”
Mr Yousaf said it would be a “pretty serious breach” of the confidentiality of the inquiry to ask current and former ministers what they had supplied.
Mr Sarwar responded: “The public, and indeed the inquiry, can see that the First Minister was unequivocal in June and now they can see how he is dodging responsibility in his answers given today.”
