Humza Yousaf accused of lying to the Scottish Parliament over Covid WhatsApps

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said the First Minister and his deputy, Shona Robison, “must immediately set the record straight”. It comes amid an ongoing row over the Scottish Government’s dealings with the inquiry, with critics accusing it of a “secretive approach”.

The Government was previously criticised for failing to hand over WhatsApps, but has now provided 14,000 messages following a legal order.

Last week, Mr Yousaf told MSPs the inquiry only asked for messages to be handed over in September, “just a matter of weeks ago”. He said the inquiry had asked for the details of various WhatsApp groups in June, but “did not request the messages themselves”.

However, a timeline published by the Scottish Government after 5pm on Wednesday – at the request of the UK inquiry – shows messages were asked for in February.

Mr Ross said: “It's clear that the First Minister and Deputy First Minister misled Parliament last week when they claimed that ministers were only asked to hand over WhatsApp messages in the last few weeks.

“Both must immediately set the record straight and explain why they peddled this lie. The continued misinformation, evasion and lack of transparency from SNP ministers past and present is an insult to those who lost loved ones during the pandemic.”

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said “This timeline directly contradicts statements made by the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister. The only thing clearer is the extent to which this shambolic government has lost control trying to cover up the truth and obstruct those seeking it.

“It begs the question, what do they have to hide? Meanwhile the public are no clearer on who has complied with the do-not-destroy order and how many senior ministers and officials deleted messages.”

The timeline was published after Ms Robison raised a point of order in the Scottish Parliament. She said the UK Covid inquiry had asked the Scottish Government “to set out in more detail the full timetable of requests for information”.

The timeline says the inquiry requested “any communications relating to key decisions, including internal and external emails, text messages or WhatsApp messages” in February.

The Scottish Government provided no WhatsApp messages in response, but “made clear that all key decisions and decision-making were recorded” on its corporate record.

The inquiry made a further request in June seeking details of the Scottish Government’s policy on informal messaging. This asked for the names of WhatsApp groups, their members and their roles.

In September, the inquiry asked for the messages within those WhatsApp groups to be handed over. A number of requests were sent to ministers, civil servants and former ministers in July and August.

The Government said there was a “large amount of sensitive and personal information contained within the WhatsApp messages” and in order to comply with data protection laws, it requested a section 21 notice to hand them over.

When this was supplied, the Government was given a deadline of November 6 to hand over the messages, which the timeline says it complied with.