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Humza Yousaf is \u201cdizzy from his own spin\u201d as he tries to justify his government\u2019s \u201ccatastrophic mistakes\u201d during the pandemic, Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie has claimed in the wake of the ongoing row over deleted WhatsApp messages.<\/p>\n
The row over the messages was sparked last week when Jamie Dawson KC into the pandemic, said “no messages” from within the Scottish Government had yet been provided to the UK COVID-19 inquiry.<\/p>\n
The Daily Record subsequently revealed WhatsApp messages were manually deleted from former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon\u2019s phone.<\/p>\n
Documents submitted to the hearing also indicated messages had been similarly deleted from the device of Mr Humza, who succeeded Ms Sturgeon in the top job earlier this year, along with those of several other senior Scottish Government figures.<\/p>\n
Speaking at Holyrood yesterday, Mr Humza, who has denied deleting any messages himself, defended predecessor Nicola Sturgeon, insisting she had offered \u201cfull accountability, full transparency” throughout the pandemic.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: <\/strong> Labour revolt as one in five poised to quit over Starmer’s Gaza stance[INSIGHT] <\/strong><\/p>\n In the past, Mr Humza had said that the Scottish Government has a policy retaining WhatsApp messages, but later claimed the policy was to delete them, Ms Baillie pointed out.<\/p>\n She added: \u201cHumza Yousaf must be getting dizzy from his own spin as he desperately attempts to defend the indefensible.<\/p>\n \u201cThe First Minister\u2019s story is changing by the day and his muddled excuses are cold comfort to those seeking answers about the catastrophic mistakes his government made during the pandemic.<\/p>\n \u201cMake no mistake, the SNP\u2019s failure to properly comply with the inquiry is a shameful betrayal of the families who are seeking justice.\u201d<\/p>\n She continued: \u201cWhile the SNP scramble to cover their tracks, all those who lost loved ones and made sacrifices are robbed of their chance to get the truth.<\/p>\n \u201cThe same old SNP secrecy and cover-up won\u2019t cut it \u2013 we need real transparency from this government and some straight answers from Humza Yousaf.\u201d<\/p>\n During spiky exchanges in the Scottish Parliament, Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said the “secretive approach” from the Scottish Government is treating families left bereaved by the virus “with contempt\u201d, and hit out at an “auto-delete” policy he said had been introduced by the Scottish Government.<\/p>\n He claimed: “This is the digital equivalent of building a bonfire to torch the evidence.<\/p>\nNicola Sturgeon quizzed over WhatsApp messages<\/h3>\n
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