Jason Leitch was a calm, reassuring presence in his almost daily TV appearances during the pandemic. But after an unedifying evidence session at the UK Covid Inquiry and revelations that Leitch deleted his Covid WhatsApps, the reputation of the national clinical director is in tatters. Now, he has announced his departure from his Scottish government role and will leave at the end of April.
The former dental surgeon was widely regarded as affable and straightforward. His skills as a communicator were huge valuable at a time of great uncertainty. He regularly stood alongside former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon during her lunchtime broadcasts to the nation, offering the scientific rationale for the decisions made by politicians. But Leitch will not depart the political scene as the hero he could have been. In common with just about everyone who has appeared in front of the UK Covid Inquiry, his reputation has taken a hammering.
Leitch will not depart the political scene as the hero he could have been.
At an inquiry hearing in Edinburgh in January, a WhatsApp exchange – in which Leitch appeared to advise current First Minister Humza Yousaf on how to effectively dodge covid regulations – was made public. In November 2021, before attending a dinner at which he was to give a speech, Yousaf messaged Leitch: ‘I know sitting at the table, I don’t need my mask. If I’m standing talking to folk, need my mask on?’ Leitch replied: ‘Officially yes. But literally no-one does. Have a drink in your hands at ALL times. Then you’re exempt. So if someone comes over and you stand, lift your drink.’
It certainly suggests that, for all his bonhomie in public, Leitch was every bit as cynical as any politician. He sent a separate message to a group chat in which he described deleting WhatsApp messages as a ‘pre-bed ritual’. Leitch told the inquiry this had been a ‘flippant exaggeration’ — but the Scottish public was in no mood to treat the matter lightly.
When it emerged that Nicola Sturgeon deleted her Covid WhatsApps, despite an earlier promise that she would make all of her communications available to any future inquiry, the scandal tarnished her reputation. Similarly, it did Leitch’s reputation no good to be seen as part of this administration at a time when people wanted the answers they’d been promised. And the fallout didn’t end there: the national clinical director’s appearance before the Covid Inquiry was also to have serious consequences for a separate probe.
A longstanding campaign against the disgraced neurosurgeon Sam Eljamel has for years been looking for answers as to how he was allowed to continue working in Dundee. Between 1995-2013, Eljamel left dozens of patients with life-changing injuries and the investigation remains ongoing to this day. Campaigners had been told by then-health secretary Michael Matheson (who recently resigned over an expenses scandal) that Leitch would play a key role in setting up a review of all cases. That is no longer the plan.
After Leitch’s appearance at the Covid Inquiry, Conservative MSP Liz Smith — who has worked closely with former patients of Eljamel — said his messages had ‘created very considerable concern’ and that families felt it was ‘totally inappropriate’ if Leitch was involved ‘in any way’ in the investigation. There were concerns, too, over the fact that Leitch is employed by NHS Tayside, the board for which Eljamel had worked. It was later confirmed that Leitch, a devout Christian, would not be overseeing the probe.
Whatever Jason Leitch’s reasons for stepping down as Scotland’s national clinical director, it’s difficult to escape the conclusion he’d made it impossible for himself to continue in the role.
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