Covid bereaved group demands ‘truth’ ahead of UK inquiry’s Scottish dates

A Covid bereaved group has called on the Scottish and UK governments to tell the “truth” about the early days of the Covid lockdown in Scotland, ahead of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry resuming north of the border.

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry resumes today with hearings in Edinburgh over the next three weeks.

The latest phase of the inquiry will examine and make recommendations about the Scottish Government’s core political and administrative decision-making in response to the pandemic between early January 2020 and April 2022, when the then remaining Covthem id-19 restrictions were lifted in Scotland.

The inquiry is expected to hear from Scotland’s former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, other current and former government figures and a number of senior civil servants.

Solicitor Aamer Anwar, who represents Scottish Covid Bereaved – a group of people who have lost loved ones to the virus – will make an opening statement at today’s hearing.

He said: “Senior UK politicians appeared unable to answer questions put to them.

“The Scottish Covid Bereaved wish to say, loudly and clearly to politicians in Scotland who will give evidence, that they want better – on behalf of their relatives, they deserve better – they want politicians to answer questions put to directly, to reflect upon their time during the pandemic and they want them to wholly engage in the process of finding out what happened, putting politics and political careers aside. Quite frankly the work of this inquiry is more important.”

Mr Anwar said some of the inquiry’s “best evidence” came from Whatsapp and text messages, but said there was a “sorry history” in obtaining the documents.

In November, the Scottish Government handed over 14,000 messages to the inquiry, including unredacted correspondence from First Minister Humza Yousaf.

Ms Sturgeon has not said if she deleted Whatsapp messages but said she has “nothing to hide”.