Five exchanges from Nicola Sturgeon’s UK Covid inquiry appearance

There was intense drama at today's hearing of the UK Covid inquiry when former first minister Nicola Sturgeon was giving evidence.

Tears, expressions of regret and sometimes defiance dotted the seven-hour session of questions and answers that took place in Edinburgh this morning and afternoon before Lady Hallett.

Ms Sturgeon led the Scottish Government's management of the pandemic from the very early days in 2020 and throughout the remainder of the crisis.

During her evidence she denied accusations of secrecy, closing out senior colleagues from decision-making and using the pandemic to advance her and her party's goal of independence.

Ms Sturgeon announced her resignation as first minister and SNP leader on February 15 last year saying she was drained by the unrelenting and unforgiving pressures of modern politics.

Tears

Ms Sturgeon became emotional several times during her evidence.

The first time was when she was being pressed by Jamie Dawson KC, senior counsel to the inquiry, if she thought she was the right person to be first minister during the pandemic.

She choked back tears as she said: “I was the first minister when the pandemic struck.

“There’s a large part of me wishes that I hadn’t been, but I was, and I wanted to be the best first minister.”

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She again became emotional as she denied suggestions that the Scottish Government used the pandemic for political purposes.

Fighting back tears again, she said: “The idea that in those horrendous days, weeks, I was thinking of political opportunity” was “not the case”.

Later on in the hearing, the former first minister again struggled to fight back tears under questioning from Mr Dawson, saying she took it “very personally” when her motives behind actions during the pandemic were questioned.

Regrets

Ms Sturgeon said probably her chief regret was not going into lockdown earlier than March 23, 2020.

She said: “Of the many regrets I have, probably chief of those is that we didn’t lock down a week, two weeks, earlier than we did.”

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'Asleep at the wheel?'

In a robust exchange with Mr Dawson she rejected an assertion put to her by the KC that the Scottish Government was “asleep at the wheel” in February 2020.

Minutes of a meeting taken by civil servant Derek Grieve had suggested there was a lack of preparedness and urgency within the Scottish Government, said the counsel.

Ms Sturgeon said: "I didn't know about these views at the time, Derek Grieve is a civil servant that I have worked with in various capacities over my time in government. Again, you know, he is a civil servant of the utmost professionalism, so I would have taken seriously what he said."

Minutes from a cabinet meeting at the end of February showed Covid-19 was raised in the “any other business” section of the meeting, with Ms Sturgeon said to be chairing a meeting of the Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGoRR) later that day.

Asked if the Government was “asleep at the wheel”, Ms Sturgeon said: “No.”

Deleted WhatsApps

Near the start of the hearing Mr Dawson asked Ms Sturgeon about why initially she had not supplied WhatsApp or other informal messages to the inquiry as when it had first asked.

These exchanges were among the most uncomfortable for the former FM as she said at a media briefing in August 2021 that she would hand all such messages over to any future public inquiry.

Ms Sturgeon initially said she had not “retained” the messages after which Mr Dawson pressed if she had deleted them.

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Ms Sturgeon said: "Yes, in the manner I have set out."

She suggested that “deletion” sounds like she was “not bothering to check whether any information was being retained”, stressing that was not the case.

She added: “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.”

Independence

Ms Sturgeon strongly rejected accusations she had tried to politicise the pandemic to advance independence.

“I don’t think in my entire life that I ever thought less about independence than during the pandemic, particularly during the early stages,” she said.

“None of those decisions were influenced by political decisions or trying to gain an advantage for independence. I was solely motivated to keep people as safe as possible.”

Mr Dawson read out a Cabinet minute from June 2020 which stated that 'consideration' be given to restarting work on independence and a referendum with work on the Covid response.

He pointed out just hours later Ms Sturgeon criticised anyone seeking to make political gain from the pandemic.

'I don’t think in my entire life that I ever thought less about independence than during the pandemic', Nicola Sturgeon told the inquiry (Image: Newsquest)
He asked her whether she was being hypocritical given her public words and the Cabinet's private position.

Referring to the independence work, she said that it had not been a significant part of the Cabinet discussion. Inquiry chair Lady Hallett then intervened saying the minute had reached agreement on the matter.

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Ms Sturgeon replied that it agreed that consideration be given to restarting work on independence, but she didn't herself did not want to do that.

Mr Dawson asked if work had been undertaken on independence at this time it would be a “considerable betrayal of the Scottish people”.

Ms Sturgeon responded: “If I had at any point decided to politicise a global pandemic that was robbing people of their lives and livelihoods, and educational opportunities, and had decided in the face of that to prioritise campaigning for independence, then, yes, it absolutely would have been as you described.

“Which is precisely why I didn’t do it – I wouldn’t have done it.”