NICOLA Sturgeon fought back tears at the UK Covid Inquiry as she revealed a “large part” of her wishes she hadn’t been First Minister during the pandemic.
When quizzed by inquiry counsel Jamie Dawson KC, Ms Sturgeon became visibly upset when asked about her time in office.
PANicola Sturgeon was heckled as she arrived this morning[/caption]
The former First Minister is currently giving evidence to the inquiry
She was handed tissues from an inquiry official as she said it was “for others to judge” the extent to which she had succeeded during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Dawson asked: “Did you consider yourself, against that background and your considerable ministerial experience, to be precisely the right First Minister for the job?”
An emotional Ms Sturgeon responded: “No, that’s not how I would have thought of it at all.
“I was the First Minister when the pandemic struck, there’s a large part of me that wishes I hadn’t been, but I was and I wanted to be the best First Minister I could be during that period. It’s for others to judge the extent to which I succeeded.”
Mr Dawson quizzed Sturgeon on messages given to the inquiry between the former First Minister, Humza Yousaf and Liz Lloyd.
She admitted she DID delete WhatsApp messages as she faced a grilling during the inquiry.
Mr Dawson asked: “Are you creating a distinction between deletion and retention. You had deleted them, had you not?”
Ms Sturgeon replied: “No, no, I think… deletion I think, forgive me, I think sounds as if it was a sort of not bothering to check whether any information was being retained.
“I was very thorough, not just in the pandemic but in all my work in government to ensure that things were appropriately recorded.
“But in line with the advice I’d always been given since my first day in government probably was not to retain conversations like that on a phone that could be lost or stolen, and therefore, not secure.”
Mr Dawson pressed: “But did you delete them?”
Ms Sturgeon said: “Yes.”
What did Nicola Sturgeon say?
The WhatsApps also exposed detailed policy discussion on informal messaging – despite Ms Sturgeon claiming this didn’t happen.
Nicola Sturgeon said her words shouldn’t be taken “literally” as she was quizzed on a live TV fib about how she’d keep her WhatsApps.
Inquiry counsel also put the ex-First Minister on the spot by saying she produced zero messages despite admitting communicating with a cast of Scottish Government figures and other devolved leaders, whose names he read out.
And she had to be pushed to admit she “deleted” WhatsApps – at first trying to avoid the use of the word.
Sturgeon claimed she would “carry the impact” of Covid decisions with her “forever” and said she didn’t get “everything right”.
She later told how discussions were often “serious, sombre and dark” behind the scenes.
Sturgeon said Humza Yousaf did Kate Forbes a “disservice” for surprising the First Minister with a £100million offer at cabinet.
The former First Minister was heckled as she arrived in Edinburgh this morning ahead of the hearing.
Several Government and pandemic officials have already faced questioning over the mass deletion of messages during the pandemic.
Humza Yousaf, Kate Forbes, John Swinney and Jason Leitch have all appeared in the last week.
Ms Sturgeon’s former chief of staff Liz Lloyd also faced questioning.
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