The Holyrood WhatsApp drama can now be upgraded from ‘mystery’ to ‘scandal’. As if not handing over important messages wasn’t bad enough, the First Minister and his deputy have today been accused of misleading the Scottish parliament on the UK Covid Inquiry. It seems pantomime season starts early north of the border…
Yousaf and deputy first minister Shona Robison told the Chamber last week that the Scottish government had only been asked for Covid WhatsApp messages in September. It now turns out this isn’t quite the case. After the Covid Inquiry requested the Scottish government set out the timeline of events in full, it became clear that it had first requested messages in February — seven months earlier than Yousaf had initially claimed. Mr S doesn’t have the greatest faith in the Scottish Government’s arithmetic skills, but even he can’t quite believe this was an accidental slip up…
Today’s developments come after taxpayer-funded apparatchik Scottish government repeatedly told Steerpike that it ‘does not have a culture of routinely using informal communications, including WhatsApp, to make policy decisions’.
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