COVID inquiry: Nicola Sturgeon admits 'large part' of her wishes she wasn't first minister when pandemic hit
The UK COVID-19 Inquiry is currently sitting in Edinburgh as it probes the devolved administration's response to the pandemic.
Wednesday 31 January 2024 19:55, UK
Nicola Sturgeon fought back tears as she told the UK COVID-19 Inquiry that a "large part" of her wishes she had not been Scotland's first minister when the pandemic struck.
Ms Sturgeon told Jamie Dawson KC, counsel to the inquiry, that she thought Boris Johnson was the "wrong person" to be prime minister.
Sturgeon gives evidence to COVID Inquiry - as it happened
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."
Scotland's former first minister is giving evidence at the COVID Inquiry as it probes the devolved administration's response to the pandemic.
Pamela Thomas lost her brother, James Cameron, during the pandemic.
Ms Thomas, a member of the Scottish Covid Bereaved group, said too much time was being taken up on the issue of WhatsApp messages, stating: "I don't think they're capable of actually telling the truth or being transparent."
She added: "Crocodile tears aren't washing with me.
"If there is any tools available to my solicitors or the inquiry with regards to any criminal activity that took place, I would like them to use them all."
Ms Sturgeon earlier apologised for telling a journalist in 2021 that she would hand over all of her WhatsApp messages despite knowing they had already been deleted.
Ms Sturgeon apologised to Mr Dawson if the answer to Channel 4's Ciaran Jenkins was "not as clear" as it should have been.
The MSP gave the inquiry a "personal assurance" that it 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".
Ms Sturgeon admitted deleting her WhatsApps and said the Scottish government's use of it was "too common" during the COVID pandemic - but said decisions were not made over the messaging app.
Ms Sturgeon told the inquiry her messages "weren't retained" rather than deleted.
Mr Dawson asked: "But did you delete them?"
Ms Sturgeon replied: "Yes, in the manner I have set out."
She told the inquiry that the Scottish government was open, transparent and accountable during the pandemic, but admitted it "will not have got every decision right" and "will have made misjudgements".
She said: "Openness and transparency with the Scottish public was very important to me from the outset of the pandemic.
"I communicated to the public on a daily basis for a lengthy period of time.
"We will not have got every decision right, and we will have made misjudgements, and there will be undoubtedly instances put to me today where, on reflection, I will think that we could have been more transparent than we were.
"But given the nature of the emergency that we were confronted with, building a relationship of trust with the public was important.
"And in my view, then and in my view now, that had to be built on a spirit of openness."
Ms Sturgeon maintained that she did not use informal messaging apps for decision-making.
She said: "I have not said, and I'm not saying today, that I never used informal means of communication. What I am saying is that I did so very rarely and not to discuss issues of substance or anything that could be described as decision making.
"There was a high degree of formality around the decision making of the Scottish government."
Sturgeon's reputation was on the line
This was Nicola Sturgeon like we have never seen before - emotional, vulnerable, and frequently upset.
Sitting on the media bench in the hearing room, the contempt in which the former first minister was held by many of the families of the bereaved sitting metres away was visible.
They were seeing this as comparable to Ms Sturgeon being on trial, held to account for her decisions at the helm of COVID.
Some people sat with the arms folded, sighing and tutting as the former first minister rejected claims that she managed the crisis in a political way.
You could hear a pin drop in the room as she, at times, struggled to string a sentence together as the barrage of questions came over and over again.
Ms Sturgeon attempted to squash long-thought feelings that she ran her government in a presidential style.
She pushed back on moments where a lack of minutes in key meetings was tantamount to a culture of secrecy.
She apologised for apparently misleading journalists in 2021 where she made an assurance to handover all of her WhatsApps.
And she danced around the wording under integration at this inquiry, eventually admitting the messages had already been wiped when she made those public comments.
It is unusual to see such a mighty political figure on the ropes. Her reputation was on the line.
Some fear that is tarnished and beyond recovery, as we approach the one-year anniversary of her quitting the top job.
Other highlights from Ms Sturgeon's evidence:
• Ms Sturgeon said the impact of decisions she made throughout the pandemic will stay with her forever.
• She said she did not recall receiving an email in August 2021 about the importance of retaining relevant material to the work of the inquiry.
• Ms Sturgeon said, "on reflection", she should not have given Professor Devi Sridhar an SNP email address.
• WhatsApp messages exchanged with her former chief of staff show Ms Sturgeon tell Liz Lloyd she was "having a crisis in decision-making" over hospitality. Ms Sturgeon told the inquiry it was something she would have "preferred not to be" on the public record.
• Ms Sturgeon admitted using a personal phone to conduct government business.
• She insisted a cabinet meeting where Humza Yousaf offered to find £100m from the health budget was not indicative of how her government business was conducted. The former first minister said she was "unhappy" with Mr Yousaf's actions because she felt it did a "disservice" to former finance secretary Kate Forbes and "took the feet from under her".
• Ms Sturgeon stated she did not have "carte blanche" to make any decision she wanted within the Scottish cabinet.
• She denied the "gold command" group made decisions and instead insisted any proposals would have been presented to cabinet.
• Ms Sturgeon refuted a suggestion the Scottish government "does not like light" to be shone on discussions it held during the pandemic.
• She admitted not having a "great deal of patience" with the idea of "everybody" wanting to be in the room. She said she wanted the "right people", whether she liked them or not.
• Ms Sturgeon said the Scottish government would sometimes have to "air issues in public" to push Westminster to shift positions.
• She rejected accusations of "secrecy" in the early days of the pandemic in regards to cases linked to a Nike conference in 2020 and concerns around a rugby match at Murrayfield. She claimed the issues around the Nike event were not disclosed at first due to "patient confidentiality" owing to the low number of attendees, while the rugby was allowed to go ahead as it was an "open air" event and fans would most likely flock to pubs if the game was closed.
• Ms Sturgeon said she had no concerns that her senior medical advisers - former chief medical officer Dr Catherine Calderwood, national clinical director Professor Jason Leitch and chief medical officer Sir Gregor Smith - were "not sufficiently expert" at the start of the pandemic as they did not have training in virology, epidemiology or respiratory medicine. She said she had a "high degree" of confidence and trust in them.
• Ms Sturgeon learned of Dr Calderwood's COVID breach in April 2020 after an adviser received a call from a Sunday newspaper. Ms Sturgeon initially hoped to retain Dr Calderwood in her post to avoid disruption, but it became apparent to the two women that she would have to resign to maintain public trust. Dr Calderwood is currently excused from giving evidence to the inquiry on medical grounds.
• She rejected an assertion the Scottish government was "asleep at the wheel" in February 2020.
• Ms Sturgeon denied that she "jumped the gun" on a decision to ban mass gatherings in March 2020. She said if she had a regret about the decision, it was that it had not been taken earlier.
• Ms Sturgeon admitted there were "flaws and deficiencies" in care home guidance in the early part of the pandemic, and she wished she could "turn the clock back" to do things differently. She said: "I do not think we got everything right around care homes and I deeply regret that."
• She 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.
Ms Sturgeon, who was a near-constant presence on the nation's TV during the pandemic, announced her shock resignation as SNP leader and first minister in February 2023.
In June, she was arrested and later released without charge amid an ongoing police investigation into the SNP's funding and finances.
And now, her leadership and competence during the pandemic are under scrutiny - with accusations of secrecy and an inclination to hoard power.
Read more:
Forbes 'surprised' no minutes exist from key meetings
Freeman 'will regret care home deaths for rest of her life'
Yousaf admits 'winging it' as health secretary
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The inquiry is currently sitting in Edinburgh.
Ms Sturgeon's evidence comes amid ongoing scrutiny over messages exchanged by ministers and officials during the pandemic.
The inquiry has already heard how the former first minister and her deputy John Swinney failed to retain their WhatsApp messages, although Ms Sturgeon later said correspondence had been handed over after being saved by recipients.
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".
Messages presented at the inquiry have included Ms Sturgeon branding then prime minister Boris Johnson a "f* clown", and the then justice secretary Humza Yousaf describing the Scottish Police Federation as a "disgrace".