During the UK Covid inquiry, John Swinney, former Deputy First Minister of Scotland, admitted to manually deleting text messages sent to Nicola Sturgeon during the pandemic. The texts with the former First Minister are “not available” as they have been removed according to Scottish government records policy. Swinney denies that Scottish cabinet meetings were “driven” by Ms Sturgeon’s “strong mindedness”. The inquiry had already heard that none of his WhatsApps or “similar messages” had been retained. Swinney served as Deputy First Minister and education secretary until May 2021 and left the latter role to become Covid recovery secretary. He stepped down from government in March 2023.
According to a document supplied to the inquiry, the texts had been either deleted manually or by an auto-delete function. The former Deputy First Minister told the inquiry he rarely spoke to Ms Sturgeon via text messages or other informal means. He said texts were generally only used to set up a phone call. Mr Swinney told the inquiry that since entering government in 2007, he had “deleted material after I have made sure any relevant information was placed on the official record of the government, and that was the approach I was advised to take.” He said this approach was never “questioned” in previous years in government and was “consistent” with the ministerial code.
The inquiry was sent 18 pages of WhatsApp messages between Mr Swinney and current First Minister Humza Yousaf from during the pandemic. They were recovered from an old handset of Mr Yousaf’s after Mr Swinney erased his messages. Lead counsel to the inquiry, Jamie Dawson KC, put it to Mr Swinney that the culture of the Scottish cabinet was driven by Ms Sturgeon’s “strong mindedness when challenging her was seen as taking a bullet”. Mr Swinney said he disagreed, as texts were used only to set up phone calls.
The lack of minutes from Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGoRR) meetings and gold command meetings during the pandemic has caused frustration among the ministers. Scottish Secretary Alister Jack is expected to appear in front of the inquiry on Thursday
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