Humza Yousaf has apologised “unreservedly” to both the UK Covid inquiry and to people bereaved by the pandemic for the Scottish government’s failures to hand over WhatsApp messages relating to the handling of the crisis.
“There’s no excuse for it. We should have done better,” Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister, told the inquiry on Thursday.
A tense day of evidence at the inquiry, which is sitting in Edinburgh for a second week, revealed that the former first minister Nicola Sturgeon had described Boris Johnson as “a fucking clown” as he broadcast to the nation to announce a second Covid lockdown in October 2020.
She told her chief of staff: “His utter incompetence in every sense is now offending me on behalf of politicians everywhere.”
Following a succession of revelations about how senior Scottish ministers and officials regularly deleted informal messages and exhibited apparent disdain for freedom of information rules, Yousaf also told Jamie Dawson KC, lead counsel for the inquiry, that he had instructed an externally-led review into the use of WhatsApp and other unofficial technology in the Scottish government.
His announcement came as evidence taken earlier in the day revealed that, despite consistent Scottish government denials, decisions about pandemic restrictions and strategy did appear to have been made using WhatsApp, in seeming contradiction of Sturgeon’s insistence that she did not conduct her government’s Covid response through informal messaging.
On Thursday morning the inquiry was shown exchanges between Sturgeon and Liz Lloyd, who served as her chief of staff and strategic adviser between 2015 and 2023, in which Sturgeon described the former UK prime minister as “a fucking clown”.
Sturgeon went on the dismiss the UK government’s Covid communications strategy as “awful … we’re not perfect but we don’t get nearly enough credit for how much better than them we are”.
Lloyd, who described herself as Sturgeon’s “thought partner”, was shown several exchanges, including one regarding the numbers allowed to attend weddings and another suggesting “a good old-fashioned rammy [quarrel]” with the UK government over furlough policy.
There was a furious response last week from bereaved families and opposition politicians when the inquiry heard that Sturgeon “retained no messages whatsoever”, while Scotland’s national clinical director, Jason Leitch, joked in a group chat that WhatsApp deletion was his “pre-bed ritual”.
Sturgeon has since clarified that the inquiry does have messages relating to the pandemic, although they were not retained on her device, and has said: “To be clear, I conducted the Covid response through formal processes from my office in St Andrew’s House, not through WhatsApp or any other informal messaging platform.”
Questioning Yousaf about how decisions were made at that time, Dawson asked him if the Scottish cabinet was a decision-ratifying rather than decision-making body.
Yousaf said he disagreed with that assessment, but also spoke to concerns raised in his initial written statement that decisions made by Sturgeon were not “cascaded” to the rest of the cabinet.
He said the pandemic had not been “not normal times” but that there were occasions when Sturgeon and her “gold command”, a select group of senior advisers and ministers, made often time-sensitive decisions that were not discussed at cabinet level.
Asked by Dawson if it was correct that these gold command meetings were not minuted, Yousaf said it was “my understanding that they should have been”.
Yousaf, who has provided the inquiry with his own WhatsApp messages, was asked about an exchange with Leitch that took place on his first day in his role as health secretary. Leitch referred to a meeting and “some FM ‘keep it small’ shenanigans as always – she actually wants none of us”.
Dawson asked if this was an example of Sturgeon wanting to make decisions alone, but Yousaf said this was a “classic example of Jason over-speaking”.
Yousaf was also asked about a WhatsApp exchange which Leitch was challenged on earlier this week, where he asked whether he needed to wear a face mask at an indoor dinner event when he was standing up talking to other guests. Leitch had advised Yousaf to “have a drink in your hands at all times, then you’re exempt”.
But Yousaf denied that he had been asking Leitch for “a workaround”. He told Dawson: “I was asking for clarification on how to comply.”
A baby girl would still be alive were it not for the "reckless, utterly selfish, callous, cruel, arrogant and ultimately grossly negligent conduct" of her parents, a court has heard.
Constance Marten, 36, and her partner Mark Gordon, 49, are on trial at the Old Bailey for the manslaughter of their newborn daughter Victoria.
The court heard the baby was found inside a shopping bag covered in rubbish "as if she was refuse".
The pair deny the charges.
Victoria's body was discovered on 1 March 2023 in a Brighton shed after a weeks-long police search for the family.
The couple are also accused of four other offences - cruelty to their baby; concealment of the baby's birth; causing or allowing her death; and perverting the course of justice by concealing the body.
Tom Little KC, prosecuting, said that while the couple were on the run the "child was transferred to a Lidl 'bag for life' where it would appear it spent much of its life before it died.
He said this would have been clear to the defendants that "this was an utterly inappropriate way to care for any child", particularly given the time of year and weather conditions.
Ms Marten was not present for the first day of her trial, while Mark Gordon was in the dock in the courtroom.
Opening the case,Mr Little KC, said the case involved an "entirely avoidable death of a young baby".
"A young baby girl who would still be alive if it was not for the reckless, utterly selfish, callous, cruel, arrogant and ultimately grossly negligent conduct of these two defendants - who were the parents of that young baby girl."
The prosecutor said the couple, who have four other children, "put their relationship and their view of life before the life of a little baby girl".
Their other four children had all been taken into care after extensive social services interaction, and the prosecution argued the couple concealed the birth of the fifth child because they knew she would be taken into care too.
Mr Little KC added: "Rather than act in the obvious best interests of a vulnerable baby and one that they should have cared for and looked after, they decided instead that they knew best."
He said Ms Marten and Mr Gordon deprived the baby of what it needed - "warmth, shelter and food and ultimately safety".
The jury heard that the couple "essentially went off-grid" and lived in a tent.
They did not seek medical assistance before, during or after the birth, the court heard.
The prosecutor said the couple ended up camping on the South Downs in "freezing and obviously dangerous conditions.
"It was this grossly negligent and obviously dangerous conduct that caused the death of their baby daughter."
Mr Little KC told jurors that only the defendants know the precise date the baby was born but said this appeared to have been after 28 December 2022.
Jurors heard that a Peugeot 206 car which the defendants had been travelling in caught on fire on the M61 in Greater Manchester on the evening of 5 January 2023.
A placenta wrapped in a towel was discovered inside the burnt out car, he told the court.
The prosecutor said that Ms Marten and Mr Gordon fled the scene before the police arrived, and that "it would have been pouring with rain and they were doing this with the baby having left nearly all their items behind".
Mr Little KC said they later went to a Morrisons supermarket in Bolton, but said they did not buy items for the baby.
The prosecutor said friends and family of the defendants and healthcare workers had not been told of the pregnancy, adding that after the discovery in the car a high-risk missing persons inquiry was launched.
Ms Marten and Mr Gordon are charged with manslaughter by gross negligence of their baby between 4 January 2023 and 27 February 2023.
Among the other charges they face are concealing the body of their baby between 4 January and 27 February 2023.
The trial continues.
The UK would break international law if it ignored emergency orders from the European court of human rights to stop asylum seekers being flown to Rwanda, the head of the court has said.
Síofra O’Leary, the ECHR president, told a press conference there was a “clear obligation” for member states to take account of rule 39 orders, interim injunctions issued by the Strasbourg-based court.
While the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has not definitively said he would ignore any such orders, he has held open the prospect, saying he has been “crystal clear repeatedly, that I won’t let a foreign court stop us from getting flights off”.
It was such an order from the ECHR – sometimes termed “pyjama injunctions” because of their tendency to be issued late at night – that helped stop initial plans for ministers to deport asylum seekers who arrive in the UK to Rwanda.
O’Leary’s comments mark another setback for Sunak in his efforts to resurrect his flagship immigration policy, one which is yet to see a single flight take off and which prompted a significant rebellion among Conservative MPs last week.
O’Leary said: “There is a clear legal obligation under the [European convention on human rights] for states to comply with rule 39 measures.” Such injunctions, she added, were only issued “in exceptional circumstances where there is a real and imminent risk of irreparable harm”.
She added: “Where states have in the past failed to comply with rule 39 indications, judges have found that the states have violated their obligations under article 34 of the convention.”
Article 34 establishes the right of people or groups to apply to the ECHR for redress if they believe their rights under the convention have been breached by domestic courts.
O’Leary noted the UK had “always complied with rule 39 measures”, and had, in 2021, urged Russia to abide by a ruling connected to the detained opposition leader Alexei Navalny, a noted opponent of the president, Vladimir Putin.
Sunak’s government is treading a legal tightrope in seeking to get deportation flights started as early as spring despite the ECHR’s doubts and a damning verdict in November by the UK’s supreme court, which ruled that the scheme could not go ahead.
Since the ruling, which was based on concern for the safety of those deported, Sunak has announced plans for an undated treaty with Rwanda that adds safeguards, and for the safety of Rwanda bill, which in effect seeks to set aside the supreme court decision.
Both of these plans have experienced trouble. On Monday, the House of Lords voted to delay ratification of the treaty so that more protections could be added. Peers will soon begin considering the Rwanda bill, and are expected to seek amendments.
The bill passed its third reading in the Commons last week with just 11 Conservative MPs opposing it, but only after more than 60 rebels attempted to secure amendments to toughen up the bill, including measures to completely set aside ECHR injunctions.
Sunak’s official spokesperson said it “would be bizarre” to make a comparison between the treatment of Navalny and the Rwanda deportations.
He said: “We are confident our legislation is compliant with our international obligations. We’re clear the bill and the treaty address the supreme court’s concerns. There should be no need for Strasbourg to intervene to block flights in the way they did in 2022.”
O’Leary declined to comment on the progress of the bill. She said: “I know there’s a very healthy debate in the United Kingdom relating to the content of the bill.
“It’s a country which is blessed with many, many international legal experts and a very active civil society. So I am sure that all of those issues can be fully examined.”
Nicola Sturgeon described Boris Johnson as a "clown" during the pandemic, a series of foul-mouthed messages shown to the COVID inquiry has revealed.
The exchange between the former first minister and her chief of staff Liz Lloyd took place on 31 October 2020 as the then prime minister appeared on TV to announce the second national lockdown.
Ms Sturgeon hit out at the UK government's communications, stating: "This is f****** excruciating - their comms are awful.
"His utter incompetence in every sense is now offending me on behalf of politicians everywhere."
Ms Lloyd said she was "offended" on behalf of special advisers everywhere.
Ms Sturgeon replied: "He is a f****** clown."
Ms Lloyd's evidence comes amid ongoing scrutiny over messages exchanged by ministers and officials during the pandemic.
Usman Tariq, junior counsel to the inquiry, highlighted an exchange made on 22 September 2020.
In a message sent to Ms Lloyd just two hours before a briefing in light of differing Westminster regulations, Ms Sturgeon said: "We haven't thought about weddings. They are reducing but not sure what to."
Special adviser Ms Lloyd responded they should "just leave it" as the Scottish government had recently increased the number of guests allowed to 20.
Mr Tariq asked: "Is this not an example of a decision that was made very much at the last minute over WhatsApp between you and Nicola Sturgeon?"
Ms Lloyd said she did not view this as making a decision because it had already been made in cabinet.
She refuted a suggestion the message implied the decision was "made on the hoof", arguing that sticking with the numbers determined earlier via scientific evidence was a "more coherent" position.
Ms Lloyd was said to be in favour of telling the public about a Nike conference in Edinburgh, the location of Scotland's first recognised outbreak of the virus.
Then chief medical officer Dr Catherine Calderwood strongly advised against it, citing patient confidentiality.
Ms Lloyd said she had "no recollection" of reading the Scottish government's policy of deleting informal messages after decisions had been made.
She also said she regretted not being able to provide messages prior to 1 September 2020, stating: "I thought I had them. I have sourced them, I have done everything that I am able to do as far as I can to find them.
"I thought I had retained them, and they're not there."
She explained that she's not the "best administrator of devices", adding: "I can't say whether I actively deleted them, I can't say whether they got lost. I don't know."
The inquiry was also shown a document from July 2020 where Brexit and Scottish independence were referenced.
In the cabinet meeting it was agreed that consideration should be given to "restarting work on independence".
Lady Hallett, chair of the inquiry, questioned whether it looked like the "politicisation of the coronavirus pandemic" to advance the cause of independence.
Ms Lloyd replied: "It says consideration was given to this but was not done at this time."
Read more:
'COVID is not finished': Scots share pandemic stories
Professor Leitch denies daily purge of WhatsApps
Sturgeon's fury at Aberdeen FC over rules breach revealed
The inquiry is currently sitting in Edinburgh as it probes the devolved administration's response to the pandemic.
Ms Sturgeon will appear at the inquiry next Wednesday.
Ms Lloyd's appearance came ahead of First Minister Humza Yousaf, who was giving evidence on Thursday afternoon.
Earlier in the week, the inquiry was shown a WhatsApp exchange in November 2021 between then health secretary Mr Yousaf and national clinical director Professor Jason Leitch.
At the time, COVID rules in Scotland meant people would not have to wear a mask if they were sitting down to eat or drink, but would if they were moving around a bar or restaurant while not drinking.
Ahead of an event, Mr Yousaf messaged: "I know sitting at the table I don't need my mask. If I'm standing talking to folk, need my mask on?"
Mr Leitch responded: "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."
Professor Leitch rejected a suggestion that he had offered a "workaround" to the rules, while a spokesperson for Mr Yousaf said the exchange "simply shows the then health secretary seeking specific, up-to-date guidance from a senior adviser to ensure he was complying with the COVID rules".
A campaign group has warned more deaths could occur if police go ahead with a new policy of not responding to most 999 mental health calls.
It follows the deaths of two adults and two girls found at a house near Norwich on Friday.
The campaign group said there would be "consequences" if the Right Care, Right Person (RCRP) policy was adopted by Norfolk Police.
The government said implementation of RCRP should reflect local needs.
One of the four found dead in the house, Bartlomiej Kuczynski, 45, had dialled 999 at about 06:00 GMT expressing concern about his mental state, and was directed to NHS 111.
Kanticha Sukpengpanao, 36, Jasmin Kuczynska, 12 and Natasha Kuczynska, nine, were found with him at the house in Costessey an hour later after a dog-walker called police.
Post-mortem examinations showed all four died from stab wounds to the neck.
Mark Harrison, of the Campaign to Save Mental Health in Norfolk and Suffolk, said he previously wrote to Norfolk Police objecting, after it announced it would be implementing the RCRP policy from February.
Forces across the country have either adopted or are considering RCRP, saying mental health call-outs required huge resources, and that police officers were not qualified to deal with most mental health situations.
Mr Harrison said: "We think there will be severe consequences. We think people will die as a result of the introduction of this scheme - and it's not safe.
"It's not been piloted; it's not got any additional resources and it will be a disaster.
"I think immediately it needs to be paused, [then] it needs to be scrapped.
"We need resources at the frontline, in the community services, in the GP surgeries, we also need investment in beds."
On Tuesday, the NHS Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board (ICB) said RCRP had been developed with health and social care partners "to ensure mental health, medical or social care issues are dealt with by someone with the right skills, training and experience". "It is really important to remember that police will continue to perform their statutory role of keeping people safe," it said.
It confirmed no extra funding had been made available as a result of RCRP.
It also said that if there was a perceived threat to life, or risk of serious harm, people could and should continue to call 999.
The Department of Health and Social Care said local implementation of the RCRP plans would "reflect the needs of local communities, as well as the capacity of local police and mental health services, and any additional resources required".
"We are investing an extra £2.3bn a year in NHS mental health services by March 2024," a department spokesperson added.
Norfolk Police has referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), in connection with the case.
On Tuesday, the IOPC revealed a man called 999 from inside the property in Allan Bedford Crescent, on the Queen's Hills estate, and said he was confused and worried about his mental state.
Police forced their way into the house and found the bodies just over an hour later, following a call at 07:00 from a concerned dog-walker.
The IOPC said it would be examining whether the handling of the contact with the caller "was appropriate and in line with force policy, training and procedures".
Police said they were treating the deaths of Ms Sukpengpanao and the two girls as murder, but Mr Kuczynski's death as not suspicious.
The force was not seeking anyone else in connection with the deaths, detectives said.
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Storm Jocelyn has been moving across the UK - days after Storm Isha hit and left at least two people dead.
Tuesday was marked by heavy rain in parts, with strong gusts across much of the country on Wednesday morning.
The strongest gust so far, 97mph, was recorded in Capel Curig, north Wales, while in Scotland trains stopped running on Tuesday evening.
The centre of the storm has now passed the UK, and is much weaker than it was on Tuesday night, BBC Weather said.
However, it will remain windy on Wednesday afternoon across Scotland and some of northern England, where a yellow weather warning for wind is in place until 15:00 GMT and gusts of up to 55-65mph are expected.
The weather for the rest of the week looks unremarkable, with some cloud and rain in some areas, but no clear sign of the next named storm - Kathleen - in the forecast.
It has been a particularly stormy autumn and winter, and Storm Jocelyn is the 10th named storm of the season.
The storms have mainly been driven by a powerful jet stream - fast-moving winds high in the atmosphere - crossing the Atlantic, although global phenomena such as the El Niño event also have an impact.
Elsewhere, a search involving coastguard crews, a helicopter and RNLI lifeboats, for a person reported to be in the sea at Porthcawl, south Wales, has resumed after it was suspended overnight.
Both Isha and Jocelyn have disrupted the journeys of many road, rail and air travellers.
ScotRail said a small number of services had resumed on Wednesday, having been suspended on Tuesday evening.
Phil Campbell, ScotRail's customer operations director, said the company was aware of some damage overnight.
Network Rail Scotland said on Wednesday that most routes have been inspected and re-opened, with most being opened in a controlled manner.
An exception is the Highland Mainline route between Pitlochry and Perth, where river levels are too high for inspection to be possible.
TransPennine Express, which runs services between northern England and Scotland, is advising customers not to travel until noon on Wednesday on its Preston to Glasgow and Preston to Edinburgh routes.
Avanti West Coast said its services to and from Scotland would be cancelled until at least midday on Wednesday.
The storm also caused "major disruption" on Northern Ireland's road network, an official said, and the main road to Belfast International Airport remained closed on Wednesday. The QE2 bridge at the Dartford Crossing on London's M25 also shut on Wednesday due to strong wind, but has since reopened.
Labour has called for a "flood resilience taskforce" to be established to strengthen long-term protections for future freak weather events.
In an urgent question in Parliament, shadow Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden said such a unit should be established "given the frequency of extreme weather events".
In response, Cabinet Office Minister Alex Burghart said the government has learned lessons from past storms, and taken greater efforts to prepare for future extreme weather events.
In Northern Ireland, power has been restored to 50,000 homes, impacted by Storm Isha, leaving 3,000 customers without electricity, according to NIE Networks.
Elsewhere in the UK, Electricity North West said power has been restored to 96% of customers affected by Storm Isha.
In northern Scotland, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said that as of 08:00 on Wednesday supplies had been restored to 2,200 customers in the north of Scotland, with just under 2,400 properties currently without.
As of 12:45 on Wednesday there are also 25 flood warnings in place across Scotland as well as 19 in England.
In York, parts of the city have flooded with water levels on the River Ouse already very high, and set to rise further.
Meanwhile, a man who died after the car he was in hit a fallen tree in Scotland during Storm Isha on Sunday has been named as James "Jimmy" Johnstone, 84, from Grangemouth, Stirlingshire. His family described him as a "much loved and well respected family man".
Motorists are being urged to reconsider making journeys where the weather is expected to be the worst, including western and southern Scotland and north-west England.
"With so much heavy rainfall and debris on the roads, driving conditions will be very challenging," RAC spokeswoman Alice Simpson said.
"We also suggest drivers avoid parking underneath or near to trees," she added.
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The statements of the parents of the two Nottingham students killed by a paranoid schizophrenic evince a pain that will never leave them. They raise serious questions about how the killer Valdo Calocane was allowed to roam the streets looking for innocent victims.
He pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and was sentenced yesterday to be detained indefinitely in a high-security hospital.
This appalling case has reflected badly on many aspects of the criminal justice and care systems.
Calocane was a ticking time bomb who had been in and out of mental institutions. He should have been sectioned but wasn’t. He should have been arrested for assaulting a police officer but wasn’t. He should have been tried for murder but wasn’t.
The families are rightly angered by the set of circumstances that was allowed to develop to snuff out the lives of two 19-year-olds and 65-year-old school caretaker Ian Coates. It is a wretched story of incompetence and complacency.
The mother of Barnaby Webber, who died with his friend Grace O’Malley-Kumar, said it was not true that the Crown Prosecution Service had brought the families along with their decision to prosecute Calocane for manslaughter, not murder. “We’ve been rushed, hastened and railroaded,” she said.
While she did not dispute he was mentally unwell, the level of premeditation suggested someone who knew what he was doing. Like Peter Sutcliffe 40 years ago, he should have been tried for murder even if the end result is the same.
The police have apologised for failing to follow up an arrest warrant against Calocane for months. Mrs Webber said they had blood on their hands and the entire system had let down those it was supposed to protect. It is a harsh verdict but one that cannot be gainsaid.