SCOTLAND’S Covid bereaved have hit out at “flippant” national clinical director Professor Jason Leitch after he admitted to deleting crucial pandemic WhatsApps.
Appearing before the British Covid-19 inquiry today, Mr Leitch was grilled for almost three hours by inquiry counsel Jamie Dawson KC, where he was repeatedly challenged on his role as an adviser and “principal communicator” during the pandemic, as well as his practice of deleting all WhatsApp messages.
Mr Leitch defended his remarks found in one recovered WhatsApp group that deleting messages was a “bedtime ritual.”
He went on to explain that his practice of destroying WhatsApp conversations after they had “reached a conclusion” as “in line” with Scottish government guidance, a point repeatedly challenged by counsel who noted the policy was to “retain messages salient to the business of the Scottish government” and others had done so.
Counsel went on to present the remnants of another recovered WhatsApp conversation between Mr Leitch and the then health secretary — now First Minister — Humza Yousaf where Mr Yousaf asked advice on mask protocols.
Mr Dawson asked: “If the cabinet secretary for health and social care didn’t understand the rules, what chance did anyone else have?”
He went on to challenge Mr Leitch’s advice that “literally no-one” followed the rules, but to “always keep a glass in your hand” to avoid having to wear a mask.
Mr Dawson said: “This was a workaround to enable him not to wear a mask at a dinner, that’s what you were trying to achieve, isn’t it?”
Aamer Anwar, the solicitor for Scottish Covid Bereaved (SCB), told a press conference earlier that “ordinary people were tired of politicians trying to get around the rules.”
SCB member Margaret Waterson commented: “Jason Leitch described some of his remarks in his WhatApps as ‘flippant and exaggerated’.
“I found nothing flippant about the death of my mother and my husband from Covid-19.”
Another SCB member, Elaine Johnson, who lost her brother Robert, added: “I was one of those people who sat at home listening to the podium every morning saying ‘oh my God, thank God I’m not in England’, I trusted them.
“I felt him and Nicola Sturgeon were honest and trying to be open with us, and I find that was all just a facade.
“I don’t understand how they hold their heads high, and I don’t understand why they’re still in a job.”
The UK Covid-19 Inquiry continues.
