Nicola Sturgeon has been reported to police over claims she lied to the UK Covid inquiry.
The ex-First Minister has been accused of misleading the review into the handling of the pandemic in her evidence about Whatsapps.
She said anything relevant from her messages had been submitted to the Scottish Government’s formal records but information released days ago found none recorded.
A member of the public has now complained online to the Metropolitan Police calling for a probe into her statements.
During a day of questioning on January 31, she was asked about her informal communications over the pandemic and what had happened to the messages she exchanged with colleagues, health officials and members of other governments.
Sturgeon said that while she had deleted her WhatsApps from the time the “salient points of substance” from them would have been “reflected and recorded” in formal records.
She told lead inquiry lawyer Jamie Dawson KC: “I’m absolutely sure that you would be able to take messages and go to the corporate record, go to the public statements that were made at the time and see all of that reflected.”
An FOI request published last week by the Scottish Government revealed there to be “zero” messages recorded on their systems.
A police report submitted to the Met and seen by the Sunday Mail has called for an investigation into the apparently conflicting statements.
It states: “Giving evidence to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry when it sat in Edinburgh last month, Ms Sturgeon confirmed she had deleted her WhatsApp messages though she stressed this was in line with official advice and she said all salient points were placed on the corporate record. However it has been revealed by FOI that she did not transfer any messages to be placed on the corporate record.
“This can mean nothing other than Ms Sturgeon lied whilst under oath at the UK Covid-19 inquiry when giving evidence
on January 31, 2024 – this is an offence that should be investigated.”
The FoI had asked for a “monthly breakdown of the number of WhatsApp messages sent or received by former first minister Nicola Sturgeon which were transferred to the Scottish Government’s eRDM system”.
The response revealed that no WhatsApp messages had been recorded from Sturgeon, her successor Humza Yousaf, former deputy FM John Swinney, former health secretary Jeane Freeman or the former finance secretary Kate Forbes.
At the covid inquiry, Sturgeon stressed she did not use informal messaging to make decisions and said: “Informal communications were not in any sense an extensive or a meaningful part of how I conducted government business in any way, but certainly not to reach decisions, and I’d say in relation not just to cßovid but to government generally.”
It emerged that there were discussions on the platform between Sturgeon and chief of staff Liz Lloyd about pandemic restrictions and conversations with Yousaf, National Clinical Director Jason Leitch, and heads of devolved governments in Wales and Northern Ireland.
Scottish Tories chairman Craig Hoy said Sturgeon must explain her past statements to the public.
A spokeswoman for Sturgeon said: “The obligation is to ensure that any salient points from messages are recorded on the corporate record. This was done. The fact that the messages themselves are not held does not mean that relevant or salient information within them was not properly recorded.”
The Scottish Information Commissioner has launched a probe into Scottish Government use of informal messaging. Commissioner David Hamilton said failing to keep a full record of decision-making has “subverted the principles” of FoI.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed it had received the complaint.
Source: Daily Record
