Tearful Sturgeon says part of her wishes she was not pandemic first minister

A tearful Nicola Sturgeon has told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry there was a “large part” of her that wishes she had not been Scotland’s first minister during the pandemic.

Ms Sturgeon became emotional as she spoke of being “overwhelmed” at times in the early days of the crisis.

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.”

Ms Sturgeon added that it was “for others to judge” if she succeeded in her aim.

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

UK minister Michael Gove previously accused the Scottish Government of seeking “political conflict” during the pandemic.

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

Ms Sturgeon added: “At times in those early days, I felt overwhelmed by the scale of what we were dealing with and perhaps more than anything, I felt an overwhelming responsibility to do the best I could.”

The Scottish Government became aware, the inquiry heard, that Covid-19 was something to “be very worried about” in late January 2020, with the cabinet discussing the virus for the first time on February 4.

Ms Sturgeon was asked in detail about the early days of the pandemic, telling the inquiry it was “not unreasonable” to keep information about an outbreak at a Nike conference in Edinburgh from the public, on the advice of former chief medical officer Catherine Calderwood, although she later said she would have “gone the other way”.

She also said governments should seek to increase their “baseline” of testing and contact tracing capacity outside of pandemics, to ensure the need to scale up when an outbreak hits is limited.

Earlier, she told the inquiry she did not use informal messaging such as WhatsApp to make decisions during the pandemic.

As she began giving evidence at the hearing in Edinburgh, the former first minister of Scotland was shown her statement to the inquiry, where she said there was a “high degree of formality around Scottish Government decision-making”.

Her statement continued: “During the pandemic I did not make extensive use of informal messaging and certainly did not use it to make decisions.”

She maintained the Scottish Government was “open, transparent and accountable” throughout its pandemic response.

Jamie Dawson KC, senior counsel to the inquiry, put it to Ms Sturgeon that she “at least rarely used (informal messaging)”.

She replied: “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.”

While WhatsApp had become “too common” a means of communication within the Scottish Government, Ms Sturgeon said she exchanged WhatsApps with no more than a “handful” of people, and was not a member of any groups, with now First Minister Humza Yousaf, and her former chief of staff, Liz Lloyd, the main people she communicated with in this way.

She said she deleted these informal messages, in line with official advice, and “salient” points were all recorded on the corporate record.

She said: “I operated from 2007, based on advice, the policy that messages, business relating to government, should not be kept on a phone that could be lost or stolen and insecure in that way, but properly recorded through the system.”

The inquiry was shown messages between Ms Sturgeon and Ms Lloyd showing the former SNP leader saying she is “having a crisis of decision-making” over hospitality and adding “it’s all so random” when discussing restrictions on restaurants.

Ms Sturgeon told the inquiry she did not think there was anything in the exchange which would not be recorded in Cabinet minutes or in the public record, adding that she does not think the messaging app “should be used to have substantial discussions”, because “four years on we can put on a different interpretation”.

Ms Sturgeon said she did not recall receiving a “do not destroy” order from senior civil servants relating to the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry, but added that she would not have “required to see that to know the matters that were relevant”.

The former first minister said she had “always assumed there would be a public inquiry” and apologised for any lack of clarity at a public briefing where she said her WhatsApps would be handed over, despite knowing they had been deleted.

She was also questioned on her decision to provide public health expert Professor Devi Sridhar with her SNP email address, which she said she “perhaps shouldn’t have”.

Ms Sturgeon added: “But if I had been in any way trying to direct her to a private email address, I doubt if I would have put my Government email address in there as well.”

Ms Sturgeon was also asked about Boris Johnson – who she had described in a message to Ms Lloyd as a “f****** clown” – saying he was not the right person to be prime minister.

Several figures in Ms Sturgeon’s Government have already faced questions at the inquiry about their deletion of WhatsApp messages during the pandemic.

The inquiry continues.