Covid lockdown messages between DUP ministers said Long was ‘hard to listen to’

WHATSAPP messages between DUP ministers exchanged in the first months of the Covid pandemic have revealed their concerns about tight restrictions imposed at the time.

Released as part of the UK Covid Inquiry, the exchanges also feature some disparaging remarks about Alliance Party leader Naomi Long, who former DUP Education Minister Peter Weir says is “hard to listen to”.

The messages were sent in early May 2020, during the first Covid lockdown.

“Incremental relaxation based on publi [sic] safety needs to happen and soon,” former Environment Minister Edwin Poots writes in one message.

The conversation, which appears to be taking place while a Zoom meeting of Stormont ministers is taking place, then moves on to wider health issues.

Ex-education Minister Peter Weir says: “There is no point saving 100 lives from Covid if we cost 200 from other sources.”

Mr Poots replies: “We are doing that, less screening, less clinics, less people reporting TIAS (transient ischaemic attack) and chest complaints leading to more strokes and heart attacks.

“All hospitals are operating well below capacity.”

He adds: “Lockdown was based on an overwhelmed health service [and the] 15,000 deaths Robin [Swann] warned of. We are not in that place.”

The exchanges also include messages from someone whose name is redacted, as it is deemed “irrelevant & sensitive”.

In one message, this person responds to a comment from Mr Poots regarding flying and his view that “social isolation on a plane is not possible”.

The unnamed individual responds: “We will have to accept that somewhere along the line there is an element of risk to everything in life”.

The final message in the onepage document is from Peter Weir. It is unclear what the context is, but he writes: “Think Edwin you will be off Naomi’s Christmas card.”

While the messages are stamped with date May 7, 2020, contained in a document entitled: “Extract of Edwin Poots’ Whatsapp messages with Philip Weir, Emma Little-pengelly and other members of the Executive, dated between 09/06/2020 and 11/06/2020.”