'Every death is a tragedy I regret': Tearful Sturgeon tells Covid inquiry too many lives were lost

The former Scottish first minister also insisted to the inquiry she did not carry out government business over WhatsApp as she admitted to deleting messages during the pandemic

Nicola Sturgeon choked back tears as she told the UK Covid inquiry the number of lives lost to the pandemic "were far too high" as she admitted she regrets "every death".

At several points during her first day giving evidence at the hearing in Edinburgh, Ms Sturgeon became visibly emotional as she admitted she wished she had not been the first minister when the pandemic struck and while she rebuffed accusations she politicised the pandemic.

During an intense day of grilling, the former Scottish first minister made some striking admissions, including that she deleted WhatsApp messages with government officials and that of her "many regrets", her biggest one was not locking the country down sooner.

But one member of the campaigning group, Scottish Covid Bereaved, said her “crocodile tears aren’t washing with me”, while the group's lawyer Aamer Anwar described her as a "master of spin".

'I feel to my core the number of lives lost were far too high'

Ms Sturgeon told the inquiry that “for as long as I live I will carry the impact of these decisions” made during the pandemic, as she apologised to all those who lost loved ones.

“I feel to my core that the number of lives lost to this pandemic were far too high. We were never going to be able to get through a pandemic with no loss of life," she said, becoming visibly emotional. “I think it was far too high.

“I think the other impacts were far too high, and, you know, every death is a tragedy that I regret, and that people in this room and outside across the country are living with the grief and trauma of, so we didn’t do as well as I wish we were able to.”

She added that of the "many regrets" she has, "probably chief of those is that we didn’t lock down a week, two weeks, earlier than we did.”

'Large part of me wishes I wasn't first minister'

Ms Sturgeon also admitted a "large part" of her wishes she was not first minister during the pandemic.

She said she did not believe Boris Johnson was the right prime minister for the job and became emotional when she was asked if she was the right first minister for it.

She said that despite what she thought about Mr Johnson at the start of pandemic she thought everyone was doing their best.

“I was the first minister when the pandemic struck. There’s a large part of me wishes that I hadn’t been but I was and I wanted to be the best first minister," she said, adding it was “for others to judge” if she succeeded in that aim.

Sturgeon admits deleting WhatsApp messages

In further admissions, Ms Sturgeon also said she deleted WhatsApp messages sent during the pandemic - and although it had become "too common" for the Scottish Government to use the app during that time period, she insisted it was not used to make formal decisions.

Earlier, she told the inquiry there was a “high degree of formality around Scottish Government decision-making” and she "did not make extensive use of informal messaging and certainly did not use it [WhatsApp] to make decisions.”

She said she exchanged WhatsApps with no more than a “handful” of people, and was not a member of any groups, adding that now-First Minister Humza Yousaf, and her former chief of staff, Liz Lloyd, were the main people she communicated with in his way.

She said she deleted these informal messages, in line with official advice, and “salient” points were all recorded on the corporate record.

“I operated from 2007, based on advice, the policy that messages, business relating to government should not be kept on a phone that could be lost or stolen and insecure in that way, but properly recorded through the system," she said.

Ms Sturgeon conceded messages had not been retained on her own devices but said she has managed to retrieve copies to submit to the probe. She has said informal messages were handed over to the inquiry last year.

The former first minister said she had “always assumed there would be a public inquiry” and apologised for any lack of clarity at a public briefing where she said her WhatsApps would be handed over, despite knowing they had been deleted.

She maintained the Scottish Government was “open, transparent and accountable” throughout its pandemic response.

She replied: “I have not said, and I’m not saying today, that I never used informal means of communication. What I am saying is that I did so very rarely and not to discuss issues of substance or anything that could be described as decision-making.”

Scottish Government ministers and officials have said decisions were routinely recorded on the official system even if messages were deleted in line with policy.

'Flaws and deficiencies' in care home guidance

Ms Sturgeon said she wishes she could “turn back the clock” to prevent the loss of lives in care homes due to Covid.

In the early months of the pandemic, more than 100 people were discharged from hospital to care homes after having previously tested positive for the virus and before returning a negative test.

She said: “I do not think we got everything right around care homes and I deeply regret that.

“There were undoubtedly flaws and deficiencies in that guidance, but the advice at the time was isolation – keeping people as separate as possible – was the best way to protect people in care homes, and clearly that didn’t have the effect that we wanted it to have.”

Politicising the pandemic?

Ms Sturgeon became emotional again later as she rebuffed previous accusations from UK minister Michael Gove that the Scottish Government used the pandemic to seek "political conflict", as she spoke of the toll Covid had on her in the early days.

She repeatedly denied politicising the pandemic in a bid to push for Scottish independence - and said if she had, it would have been a “betrayal”.

Asked about Mr Gove's accusations, fighting back tears, she replied: “The idea that in those horrendous days, weeks, I was thinking of political opportunity” was “not the case”.

“At times in those early days, I felt overwhelmed by the scale of what we were dealing with and perhaps more than anything, I felt an overwhelming responsibility to do the best I could," she added.

She said she had not thought “less” about politics and independence than she did during the pandemic.

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Accusations exclusive 'gold command' meetings were not minuted

Ms Sturgeon also gave evidence on whether so-called "gold command meetings", which involve small groups of Scottish Cabinet members finalising key decisions during the pandemic, were not minuted.

She was asked whether this select group - which included herself, then-Health Secretary Mr Yousaf, former deputy first minister John Swinney and ex-finance secretary Kate Forbes - made decisions on their own.

Ms Sturgeon insisted she did not seek to exclude people and that the group was "not a decision-making or a formal governance body".

Asked about a text exchange between Mr Yousaf and national clinical director, Professor Jason Leitch, in which the latter says “she actually wants none of us” at certain meetings, Ms Sturgeon admitted she did “not have a great deal of patience” with the idea of “everybody” wanting to be in the room.

She added there was a “tendency” at one point where there were a “cast of thousands” who wanted to be there - but she wanted "the right people" with the "right expertise" present.

Nike conference decision would've been different with 'hindsight'

Ms Sturgeon also rejected accusations of “secrecy” within her government in the early days of the pandemic.

The Scottish Government became aware, the inquiry heard, that Covid-19 was something to “be very worried about” in late January 2020, with the Cabinet discussing the virus for the first time on February 4.

In his evidence to the inquiry, epidemiologist Professor Mark Woolhouse criticised the Scottish Government for failing to disclose a Covid outbreak at a Nike conference.

The three-day Nike conference took place towards the end of February 2020 at the Hilton Carlton Hotel, with about 25 people later believed to have been infected with Covid-19. Details of the incident only emerged in a BBC documentary in May.

The inquiry heard former chief medical officer (CMO), Dr Catherine Calderwood - who later resigned after it emerged she made a Covid rule-breaking trip to her holiday home in Fife - had advised the Scottish Government the outbreak should not be disclosed to the public on grounds of patient confidentiality.

However, with hindsight, Ms Sturgeon said she would have “gone the other way” on the disclosure of the Nike conference.

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