PERTHSHIRE NORTH MP John Swinney insisted today that splits on UK and Scottish government Covid policy were not political.
The former deputy first minister made the remarks as he gave evidence at the UK Covid-19 inquiry in Edinburgh.
He refuted allegations made by Michael Gove — who served as UK Cabinet secretary at the time — that there had been a “desire for differentiation” from the SNP Scottish government during the pandemic.
Mr Swinney insisted differences, such as having five levels of lockdown, in Scotland rather than the UK’s three-tier approach was not for political point scoring.
Earlier in his evidence, Mr Swinney had conceded that he had “manually deleted all WhatsApps from the period,” but argued that this had been his practice since entering government in 2007 on civil service advice.
Counsel to the inquiry Jamie Dawson KC repeatedly returned to the matter of decision-making during the pandemic and queried if the cabinet had given way to decision-making centred around the then first minister Nicola Sturgeon.
Mr Swinney refuted the assertion, saying: “The first minister would generally sum up the position and the agreed position would be arrived at.
“But Cabinet never held vote on any issue in connection with Covid-19 or any other issue on that matter.
“In my 16 years in cabinet there wasn’t a single vote on any issue because that’s not how cabinet does its business, it does its business by trying to come to a point of agreement.”
The matter of the Scottish government’s equivalent of the UK’s Cobra meetings — the Scottish Government Resilience Room — not being minuted was put to both Mr Swinney and earlier to Kate Forbes who served as finance secretary during the crisis.
While Mr Swinney argued that these meetings were “operational,” Ms Forbes told the inquiry: “That surprises me and this would be the first of me hearing it.”
Ms Forbes, who — unlike Mr Swinney and Ms Sturgeon — had retained her WhatsApp messages from the period said she could “understand that frustration” expressed on the missing minutes.
But she said that she had not even been aware of the group’s existence until she joined it.
Ms Forbes, who narrowly lost the SNP leadership last spring, told the inquiry of her “immense sorrow at the devastation that was wreaked among so many families.”
The Covid-19 inquiry continues and will hear from former first minister Nicola Sturgeon on Wednesday.
