NATS chiefs have been pressured to publish greater than 100 pages of WhatsApps from ministers – regardless of initially claiming none existed greater than two years in the past.Ministers claimed the messages may very well be shared because of the “intensive vary of proof” gathered for the Covid inquiries, main ministers to “establish WhatsApps” which have been thought-about “not in scope” or “beforehand deleted”.
March 2021:
This era included the peak of the Salmond Inquiry when Nicola Sturgeon was discovered to have misled parliament over her data of complaints towards Alex Salmond.
August 2021:
Senior SNP figures similar to John Swinney have been negotiating the coalition cope with the Scottish Inexperienced occasion after the election earlier within the yr.
It later emerged Mr Swinney had “an auto delete arrange” on his telephone.
August 2021:
Nicola Sturgeon, then First Minister, was requested by Ciaran Jenkins of Channel 4 Information: “Are you able to assure to the bereaved households that you’ll disclose emails, WhatsApps, personal emails in the event you’ve been utilizing them .. no matter .. that nothing shall be off limits on this inquiry?”
Ms Sturgeon replied: “I feel in the event you perceive statutory public inquiries you’d know that even when I wasn’t ready to present that assurance, which for the avoidance of doubt I’m, then I would not have the power.
“This shall be a judge-led, statutory public inquiry.”
December 2021:
Ministers have been first requested for WhatsApp messages however repeatedly claimed they didn’t have a single WhatsApp.
SNP ministers claimed they’d despatched and obtained no WhatsApp or textual content messages throughout March and August 2021.
Opposition events labelled this declare as “stretching credibility to breaking level” and “doubtful”.
Authorities figures responded by calling the criticism “ridiculous”.
October 2023:
Experiences emerged that senior Scottish Authorities figures had wiped WhatsApp messages, sparking anger from Covid bereaved households and opposition politicians.
November 2023:
In November, Ms Sturgeon repeatedly refused to verify or deny that she had deleted messages, claiming the matter was “confidential” – regardless of First Minister Humza Yousaf and ex-Holyrood Finance Secretary Kate Forbes saying they hadn’t deleted their very own messages.
Then deputy First Minister Shona Robison vowed at hand over round 14,000 messages to the UK inquiry by a authorized deadline of November 6, “largely regarding routine coordination of labor and conferences by officers”.
Covid inquiry counsel Mr Dawson revealed at a listening to this month that “usually only a few messages seem to have been retained” by round 70 key Scottish Authorities figures, thought to incorporate Ms Sturgeon and her pandemic official Prof Jason Leitch.
January 2024:
It was established that Nicola Sturgeon deleted all of her WhatsApp messages from throughout the pandemic.
The deletions come regardless of Ms Sturgeon saying in as early as Might 2020 that there could be public inquiries into the Covid disaster.
March 2024:
Nat chiefs have been pressured to publish greater than 100 pages of WhatsApps from ministers, regardless of initially claiming none existed greater than two years in the past.
It was revealed that SNP ministers took Scotland’s transparency watchdog to courtroom to maintain key proof about Nicola Sturgeon’s alleged potential misconduct throughout her authorities’s probe into Alex Salmond secret.
Following an attraction to the Scottish Data Commissioner, ministers have been pressured to reveal greater than 100 pages price of messages.
Jamie Dawson KC quizzed Scottish Authorities official, director-general company, Lesley Fraser, throughout the enquiry.
Mr Dawson steered the deletions meant there was “no entry to the previous First Minister of Scotland’s message in reference to the administration of the pandemic”.
October 2024
In new WhatsApps launched from Might 2021, Humza Yousaf, then Justice Secretary, reacted to a now-discredited video which wrongly claimed to indicate Rangers gamers chanting “f*** the Pope” whereas celebrating their Premiership title win at Ibrox.
He tweeted: “If this clip is real then any participant or employees member discovered to be responsible of anti-Catholic hatred ought to be proven the door by the membership.”
Humza Yousaf, then Well being Secretary, expressed his anger in a textual content to Professor Jason Leitch about being requested by a BBC reporter concerning his controversial name for Rangers gamers to be sacked in the event that they’d chanted sectarian slogans.
He texted: “I bought p****d off on the bbc right this moment as they requested me all this crap about Rangers and the video. Simply rehashing the same old crap.”
