NICOLA Sturgeon has said she has “nothing to hide” following reports that WhatsApp messages relevant to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry may have been deleted from her phone.
Speaking to journalists in Holyrood, the former first minister said she was “committed to full transparency”.
“I gave my all to the management of the pandemic,” she said.
“Transparency for the families affected, by everybody affected by the pandemic, matters really a lot to me.
“I did my best everyday, as you heard me say many times over the course of the pandemic, I did not get everything right but I did my best and I want the process of these inquiries to get to the heart of what happened – the things that governments got right and the things that governments and leaders alike didn’t get right.”
She added that she was not a member of any WhatsApp groups and took decisions related to the response to Covid-19 at Scottish Government headquarters at St Andrew’s House in Edinburgh.
“I did not manage the Covid response by WhatsApp.
“Any messages I had I handled and dealt with in line with the policies set out by the Deputy First Minister.”
Her comments come after the Scottish Government published its policy on social media messages, which says “business conversations” through informal messaging channels should be deleted “at least monthly”.
Earlier, Deputy First Minister Shona Robison said that the Scottish Government would be handing over 14,000 WhatsApp messages to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.
The simple truth is that all messages on Whatsapp should be saved if they are on a government device. That they have been deleted even after sturgeon promised that there would be an inquiry into the Scottish governments conduct is lunacy.
At best it is incompetence. At worst they are purposefully covering up information that they don’t want people to see.
It doesn’t matter what party you support. You should be furious with what has happened here. It is denying people closure and will forever fuel accusations of a cover up.
Any business with sensitive information have policies to protect it and if it had been deleted she would be disciplined at least and anything on this scale, sacked for incompetence.
god fucking shut up nobody cares
I’ve honestly not followed the covid drama much as I just stayed indoors, followed the rules and never got covid.
Can somebody tell me what the SG did wrong? I’m sure things could have been better but from my perspective Scotland seemed to handle it better than at least England.
Surprised she can remember she has nothing to hide.
“Nothing to hide” like when she had “nothing to hide” in regards to the Salmond case.
8 comments
NICOLA Sturgeon has said she has “nothing to hide” following reports that WhatsApp messages relevant to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry may have been deleted from her phone.
Speaking to journalists in Holyrood, the former first minister said she was “committed to full transparency”.
“I gave my all to the management of the pandemic,” she said.
“Transparency for the families affected, by everybody affected by the pandemic, matters really a lot to me.
“I did my best everyday, as you heard me say many times over the course of the pandemic, I did not get everything right but I did my best and I want the process of these inquiries to get to the heart of what happened – the things that governments got right and the things that governments and leaders alike didn’t get right.”
She added that she was not a member of any WhatsApp groups and took decisions related to the response to Covid-19 at Scottish Government headquarters at St Andrew’s House in Edinburgh.
“I did not manage the Covid response by WhatsApp.
“Any messages I had I handled and dealt with in line with the policies set out by the Deputy First Minister.”
Her comments come after the Scottish Government published its policy on social media messages, which says “business conversations” through informal messaging channels should be deleted “at least monthly”.
Earlier, Deputy First Minister Shona Robison said that the Scottish Government would be handing over 14,000 WhatsApp messages to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.
[What BBC Scotland is trying to do is persuade the public that the Scottish Govt was just as inept, corrupt and callous during the pandemic than the UK Govt. It has nothing to do with public service or ‘news’. It is a politically motivated smear campaign.](https://twitter.com/msm_monitor/status/1719667925999620597?t=LEDMgSgj0m8cdhSGN33-tg&s=19)
Perhaps BBC Scotland’s WhatsApp messages from Covid should be examined too?
It’s not like they have [anything](https://twitter.com/msm_monitor/status/1674329369207091202?t=CXYafvxCkmD_SHb5aAx7cg&s=19) [to](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/31/boris-johnson-favoured-older-people-accepting-their-fate-covid-inquiry-hears) [hide](https://twitter.com/msm_monitor/status/1716475805755191587?t=c1_p_tOoR4bYe7gbzv2VcA&s=19), right?
The simple truth is that all messages on Whatsapp should be saved if they are on a government device. That they have been deleted even after sturgeon promised that there would be an inquiry into the Scottish governments conduct is lunacy.
At best it is incompetence. At worst they are purposefully covering up information that they don’t want people to see.
It doesn’t matter what party you support. You should be furious with what has happened here. It is denying people closure and will forever fuel accusations of a cover up.
Any business with sensitive information have policies to protect it and if it had been deleted she would be disciplined at least and anything on this scale, sacked for incompetence.
god fucking shut up nobody cares
I’ve honestly not followed the covid drama much as I just stayed indoors, followed the rules and never got covid.
Can somebody tell me what the SG did wrong? I’m sure things could have been better but from my perspective Scotland seemed to handle it better than at least England.
Surprised she can remember she has nothing to hide.
“Nothing to hide” like when she had “nothing to hide” in regards to the Salmond case.