Derogatory texts between Humza Yousaf and Jason Leitch released
- Published
Humza Yousaf was justice secretary and health secretary during the pandemic while Jason Leitch was the country's national clinical director
Derogatory WhatsApp messages between Scotland's first minister and its national clinical director have been published by the UK Covid Inquiry, external.
The messages show that Humza Yousaf and Jason Leitch used insulting language about opposition politicians.
Mr Leitch described a female Labour MSP as a "new girl" and said a Tory MSP had been "harrumphing like a child".
Mr Yousaf used expletive language to describe former Labour MSP Neil Findlay.
The message exchange between the pair happened shortly after Mr Yousaf was appointed health secretary in 2021, and saw him joke at one point that he was "winging it! And will get found out sooner rather than later", followed by a laughing emoji.
Mr Leitch responded: "Me too. That doesn't change".
The inquiry has heard that Mr Yousaf also described the Scottish Police Federation as a "disgrace" while he was serving as justice secretary earlier in the pandemic.
And it was shown a text message exchange between his predecessor, Nicola Sturgeon, and her chief of staff Liz Lloyd in which Ms Sturgeon referred to then Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a "(expletive) clown".
Ms Sturgeon and Ms Lloyd were also shown discussing Covid rules and the Scottish government's strategy for dealing with the pandemic, with Ms Lloyd saying at one point that she wanted a "good old fashioned rammy" with the UK government so she could "think about something other than sick people".
Ms Lloyd, who was a close confidante of Ms Sturgeon, told the inquiry in her evidence on Thursday that she was "looking for a public spat with a purpose" over the UK government's furlough scheme as "public spats could often deliver results".
The inquiry, which is currently sitting in Edinburgh, has been told that Ms Sturgeon failed to keep any of her messages from the pandemic but the exchange was handed over to the inquiry by Ms Lloyd.
Mr Yousaf has already apologised to the inquiry for the Scottish government's "frankly poor handling" of requests for text messages and has pledged that an external review will be held into its use of messaging apps such as WhatsApp.
A batch of documents was released by the inquiry after Thursday's evidence session.
They included messages in which Mr Leitch claimed that Labour leader Anas Sarwar told him he was "struggling" with Paul Sweeney as a new Labour MSP and with what Mr Leitch called "a new girl" - the Labour MSP Mercedes Villalba - shortly after the 2021 election.
Mr Leitch, who featured prominently in the media during the pandemic, also used a derogatory word to describe Labour MSP Daniel Johnson and alleged that Conservative MSP Edward Mountain had been "rude" and "harrumphing like a child" at a briefing.
Neil Findlay said the language used about him showed Mr Yousaf and Mr Leitch had "utter contempt" for MSPs who questioned them during the pandemic
He has previously denied giving Mr Yousaf a "workaround" to Covid rules when he was health secretary by advising him to keep a drink in his hand at all times to remain "exempt" from face mask rules at a dinner.
But he said he followed Scottish government records management policies, and described a WhatsApp comment he made about deleting messages being a "pre-bed ritual" as a "flippant exaggeration".
Mr Findlay tweeted that the comments made about him showed that Mr Yousaf did not like being held to account and that Mr Yousaf and Mr Leitch had "utter contempt" for MSPs who did not "unquestioningly accept" what they were being told by the government.
He added: "One of the most important jobs of opposition politicians is to hold the government to account."
Labour called for Mr Leitch to be sacked after it emerged that he used an auto-delete function on a Covid WhatsApp chat during the pandemic.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said that it was Jason Leitch's job to answer hard questions, and that it was "unacceptable" for him to make personal remarks.
He added: "There is a rotten culture at the top that permeates to senior officials, where the lines of communication get blurred."
Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy said it was "totally inappropriate that a supposedly impartial health advisor was behaving like a paid-up member of the SNP during the pandemic".
Mr Hoy added: "The messages that have come to light from others reveal that Jason Leitch laughed as the future first minister insulted others, and that he even joined in the mud-slinging at politicians from other parties.
"It is no wonder that he became a cheerleader for the industrial-scale deletion of WhatsApps from those at the top of the SNP-Government, and that it became a 'pre-bed ritual' for him and his colleagues to hide petty attacks - and much else besides - such as these.
"Mr Leitch must now do the decent thing and resign or be sacked as National Clinical Director as it is clear that he is not fit for the role."
SNP leader at Westminster, Stephen Flynn, was asked by BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime programme if he had lost faith in Mr Leitch and if he should apologise.
Mr Flynn said: "I don't think it would be unreasonable"
A Scottish government spokesperson said it would be "inappropriate" to comment on any evidence while the hearings were taking place.
They also stated that "learning lessons" was vital for the future.
Nicola Sturgeon, who is said to have not retained any of her messages, is due to give evidence to the inquiry next week
In his evidence to the inquiry on Thursday, Mr Yousaf offered an "unreserved" apology for the Scottish government's "frankly poor" handling of requests from the inquiry for WhatsApp messages to be handed over.
He accepted that this would have caused "serious grief and retrauma" for those who lost loved ones during the pandemic.
Mr Yousaf added: "There is no excuse for it, we should have done better and it is why I reiterate that apology today."
SNP MP Ian Blackford told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme that the Scottish government had made 28,000 messages available to the inquiry, which he said was in "stark contrast" to the UK government's handling of messages.
He added: "At the time that Covid was taking place there was only one thing above all else on the first minister's mind and that was giving leadership over the Covid crisis."