Nicola Sturgeon is facing fury today after Scottish government papers showed her Cabinet did discuss using Covid to boost the drive to break up the UK.
Despite repeatedly attempting to ‘gazump’ Westminster with announcements during the pandemic, the former SNP leader was always adamant she had no intention of politicising it.
On June 30, 2020 Ms Sturgeon told a briefing on the raging crisis that anyone ‘trotting out political or constitutional arguments is in the wrong place completely’.
But records of a Scottish Cabinet meeting from the same day, highlighted at the Covid Inquiry, showed it covered ‘restarting work on independence and a referendum’ and suggested that arguments should ‘reflect the experience of the coronavirus crisis’.
Scottish Tories branded the revelation ‘disgusting’ saying it showed the pandemic was not the SNP’s ‘sole focus’ at the time. They have tabled a question at Holyrood and demanded Humza Yousaf comes to explain the situation.
Nicola Sturgeon (pictured in June 2020) is facing fury today after Scottish government papers showed her Cabinet did discuss using Covid to boost the drive to break up the UK
Scotland was still tightly in the grip of the Covid crisis in June 2020
Despite repeatedly attempting to ‘gazump’ Boris Johnson (pictured) with announcements during the pandemic, the former SNP leader was always adamant she had no intention of politicising it
Ms Sturgeon was seen as leading a strong response to Covid in the initial stages, although public support for her performance cooled later.
She has since quit as SNP leader and first minister, and is now caught up in the ongoing furore over the nationalists’ finances – although she denies any wrongdoing.
The Scottish Cabinet minutes were aired at the Covid Inquiry on Friday it took evidence from Kenneth Thomson, who was head of the Covid Coordination Directorate north of the border at the time.
Jamie Dawson KC, lead counsel for the inquiry’s module on Scotland, read Mr Thomson the June 30, 2020 minutes.
They said the Cabinet ‘agreed that consideration should be given to restarting work on independence and a referendum, with the arguments reflecting the experience of the coronavirus crisis and developments on EU Exit’.
Mr Dawson asked whether that showed the Scottish government was trying to ‘politicise’ the situation.
Mr Thomson denied that but acknowledged that ‘as we moved out of the lockdown restrictions, more of the ordinary business of the Scottish Government started to resume, including this bit’.
Former ministers were enraged by Ms Sturgeon’s habit of trying to upstage the UK government during Covid,.
Giving evidence to the official inquiry last month, Matt Hancock complained that she would ‘spin’ policies to make it look like she was ahead of Westminster, even when issues had been discussed collectively.
The Covid-19 Inquiry was shown WhatsApp messages from Mr Hancock from July 2020, regarding communications around travel from Spain and quarantine.
When told that No10 wanted to communicate the matter ‘ASAP’, Mr Hancock replied: ‘Me too. It will leak anyway – and the Scots will try to get their announcement out first.’
Giving evidence to the official inquiry last month, Matt Hancock complained that Ms Sturgeon would ‘spin’ policies to make it look like she was ahead of Westminster, even when issues had been discussed collectively
‘We found it much more difficult when decisions went up to first minister level, particularly with Nicola Sturgeon.
‘Because we would find that sometimes some kind of spin was put on what was essentially substantively the same decision. So it was a frustration, I’ve got to be honest about that.’
Scottish Conservative shadow constitution secretary Donald Cameron said today: ‘This astonishing and shameful revelation from the UK Covid inquiry explains why Nicola Sturgeon and many of her senior colleagues were so keen to delete their WhatsApp messages.
‘If a discussion on pushing their independence obsession was talked about around the cabinet table, we can only imagine the extent of the SNP’s crass constitutional opportunism on private messaging.
‘The Scottish people are entitled to know why a government that assured us public safety was its sole focus was gaming its push for another independence referendum while the death toll mounted.
‘Humza Yousaf was a senior figure around the cabinet table at the time. Did he voice any objections to this disgracefully skewed priority? If not, why not?
‘The Scottish people deserve an explanation for the scandalous decision to focus on SNP political objectives during a public health emergency.’