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Former Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon found herself in the hot seat as she gave evidence at the UK COVID-19 inquiry.

Here are five key moments from the day as the inquiry - currently sitting in Edinburgh - probes the devolved administration's response to the pandemic.

'Part of me wishes I wasn't first minister when COVID hit'

Ms Sturgeon fought back tears as she told the inquiry that a "large part" of her wishes she had not been Scotland's first minister when the pandemic first struck.

The inquiry heard last week how Ms Sturgeon branded Boris Johnson a "f* clown" in a foul-mouthed message to her chief of staff as the then prime minister appeared on TV to announce the second national lockdown.

Giving evidence on Wednesday, Ms Sturgeon told Jamie Dawson KC, counsel to the inquiry, that she thought Mr Johnson was the "wrong person" to be prime minister.

In response to whether she thought of herself to be "precisely the right first minister for the job", Ms Sturgeon replied tearfully: "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 wishes that I hadn't been.

"But I was, and I wanted to be the best first minister I could be during that period. It is for others to judge the extent to which I succeeded."

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Lawyer Aamer Anwar, who is representing the Scottish COVID Bereaved group, said Ms Sturgeon had delivered a "polished performance" during her testimony, but his clients were "deeply unsatisfied" with the explanations around the deletion of WhatsApp messages.

Group member Pamela Thomas, whose brother died during the pandemic, said: "Crocodile tears aren't washing with me."

In full: Nicola Sturgeon at the COVID inquiry

'I deleted messages but pandemic decisions were not made via WhatsApp'

The deletion of messages exchanged by ministers and officials during the pandemic has come under close scrutiny.

The inquiry has already heard how Ms Sturgeon and her deputy, John Swinney, failed to retain their informal messages - although correspondence saved by recipients has been submitted.

Professor Sir Gregor Smith, Scotland's chief medical officer, told colleagues to delete WhatsApp messages "at the end of every day", while national clinical director Professor Jason Leitch described the daily deletion of messages as a "pre-bed ritual".

Ms Sturgeon said she did not use informal messaging to make decision during the pandemic.

She initially told the inquiry her messages "weren't retained" - rather than deleted - in line with government policy.

Mr Dawson asked: "But did you delete them?"

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

The Glasgow Southside MSP also apologised for telling a journalist in August 2021 that she would hand over all of her messages despite knowing many of her WhatsApps had already been deleted.

Ms Sturgeon apologised to Mr Dawson if the answer to Channel 4's Ciaran Jenkins during a media briefing was "not as clear" as it should have been.

She gave a "personal assurance" that the inquiry has "anything and everything germane to my decision-making during the process and the time period of the pandemic and the factors underpinning those decisions".

'My chief regret is that we didn't lock down earlier'

Ms Sturgeon denied she "jumped the gun" on a decision to ban mass gatherings in March 2020.

Instead, she said one of her chief regrets was not announcing it earlier.

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."

Earlier this week, Michael Gove told the inquiry that Ms Sturgeon broke confidentiality and "jumped the gun" when she announced a ban on mass gatherings in Scotland.

Ms Sturgeon refuted the criticism, stating: "None of us were jumping the gun - we were arguably all going more slowly than we should have been."

She announced the ban on 12 March 2020 despite a COBRA meeting called later that day to discuss the pandemic.

Ms Sturgeon said: "We would obviously listen to other views at COBRA but this was a Scottish government decision to take.

"I was increasingly concerned that we were not moving fast enough to deal with the rate of transmission of COVID."

'I wish I could turn the clock back to reduce care home deaths'

Ms Sturgeon admitted there were "flaws and deficiencies" in care home guidance in the early part of the pandemic.

According to evidence heard earlier in the inquiry, 82% of the 3,595 patients discharged between 1 March and 21 April 2020 were not tested for the virus.

A Public Health Scotland report in 2020 also found more than 100 people who had previously tested positive for the virus were admitted from hospital to a care home before returning a negative test.

Ms Sturgeon said: "I do not think we got everything right around care homes and I deeply regret that.

"There were undoubtedly flaws and deficiencies in that guidance, but the advice at the time was isolation - keeping people as separate as possible - was the best way to protect people in care homes, and clearly that didn't have the effect that we wanted it to have."

Under questioning from Kevin McCaffrey, representing the Scottish COVID Bereaved group, Ms Sturgeon was asked what she would have done differently in her approach to care homes.

She replied: "I would do everything in my power, and I wish I could turn the clock back and do different things that would have reduced the loss of life in care homes."

'I did not politicise a global pandemic'

Ms Sturgeon denied making decisions for political reasons, claiming she had not "thought less" about politics and Scottish independence in her life than she did during the pandemic.

The inquiry was earlier shown a cabinet document from July 2020 where Brexit and Scottish independence were referenced.

In the cabinet meeting it was agreed that consideration should be given to "restarting work on independence".

Ms Sturgeon said "work did not restart", adding: "There was no prospect of starting work on independence at that time, but in any event it didn't happen."

She claimed her government "focused entirely" on getting the country through COVID.

An email was also shown in which concern was raised that the Spanish government would block an independent Scotland from joining the EU if travel restrictions during the pandemic remained.

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Mr Dawson asked Ms Sturgeon if using the pandemic to push for independence would be a "considerable betrayal of the Scottish people".

She replied: "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."

Ms Sturgeon refuted a claim that she wanted to be the person that drove COVID out, admitting that she took it "very, very personally" when her motives during the pandemic are questioned.

She later said: "People will make their own judgments about me, about my government, about my decisions, but for as long as I live, I will carry the impact of these decisions.

"I will carry regret at the decisions and judgments I got wrong, but I will always know in my heart and in my soul that my instincts and my motivation was nothing other than trying to do the best in the face of this pandemic."