NATS chiefs were today forced to publish more than 100 pages of WhatsApps from ministers – despite initially claiming none existed more than two years ago.
Critics said SNP ministers were treating Scots like they were “buttoned up the back” over the scandal.
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The embarrassing climb down follows Nicola Sturgeon admitting she deleted all her WhatsApps from the Covid pandemic, and amid fury from families of the Covid bereaved.
And ministers only released them after being taken to Scotland’s information watchdog by this newspaper in what is a major transparency victory for The Scottish Sun.
Messages released include one from Ms Sturgeon as she was grilled over the SNP’s handling of sexual harassment complaints against one of its MPs, Patrick Grady.
In a message to her chief of staff, Liz Lloyd, the former SNP leader complains: “I am reaching my outer limits of being able to put up with stuff.”
Another shows the First Minister and then Health Secretary Humza Yousaf, admitting he was behind on government papers, flippantly adding “story of my life”.
And in a WhatsApp sent to Ms Sturgeon on the day she was found to have misled the Scottish Parliament on her knowledge of harassment complaints made to the government about Alex Salmond, Mr Yousaf says: “Keep your head up (as difficult as it must feel at times) you are on the side of truth and only every [sic] taken the principled stand.
“All of us are behind you”.
Ex-health secretary Jeane Freeman is also revealed to have angrily complained to the chief executive of NHS Scotland, Caroline Lamb, about “game playing” by officials.
In one message in March she states: “I’m afraid some of your directors are being exceptionally precious and causing my private office way too much grief”.
In a later message, she adds: “There is a great deal of game playing going on that is truly unacceptable”.
And in another message, a special adviser can be seen complaining about officials “squabbling” about the response to Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban.
However many remain heavily redacted as ministers continue to attempt to cover-up how they use the encrypted messaging system.
Other ministers who can now be revealed to have used WhatsApp for government business include ex-deputy first minister John Swinney, ex-finance secretary Kate Forbes, the then-social justice secretary and now deputy first minister, Shona Robison, and then-education secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville.
A handful of junior ministers were also part of the info dump.
Ministers were first asked for the messages more than two years ago in December 2021 but repeatedly claimed they did not have a single WhatsApp.
The timeframes cover two sensitive periods of the year.
March 2021 included the height of the Salmond Inquiry when Nicola Sturgeon was found to have misled parliament over her knowledge of complaints against Alex Salmond.
And August 2021 was when senior SNP figures such as John Swinney were negotiating the coalition deal with the Scottish Green party after the election earlier in the year.
In December that year, SNP ministers claimed they had sent and received no WhatsApp or text messages during those two months.
Opposition parties at the time said this was “stretching credibility to breaking point” and labelled it “dubious”.
Government figures attacked the criticism “ridiculous” and said opposition MSPs “used to criticise ministers for using WhatsApp – now they criticise them for not using WhatsApp”.
However in a fresh response following an appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner, they were forced to disclose more than 100 pages worth of messages.
This is despite senior figures such as Nicola Sturgeon telling the UK Covid Inquiry they had deleted all of their WhatsApp messages from the pandemic.
Ministers claimed the messages could only now be shared due to the “extensive range of evidence” gathered for the Covid inquiries leading ministers to “identify WhatsApps” which were considered “not in scope” or “previously deleted”.
Scots Tory party chairman Craig Hoy said the SNP were treated Scots like they are “buttoned up the back” and that the public had seen through “ludicrous” claims government business was not done on WhatsApp.
He added: “This sudden u-turn on releasing a mammoth number of messages only confirms that.
“Scots deserve better than senior government figures misleading them over the widespread use of messaging apps and this development reeks of the SNP’s addiction to secrecy.
“These messages yet again expose that even before he failed upwards into Bute House, Humza Yousaf was happily winging it when in charge of key public services during the pandemic.”
Scots Lib Dem MSP, Willie Rennie, said Scots will be “disappointed” to be “misled” by Ms Sturgeon over WhatsApps.
He said: “The former First Minister has been insistent she didn’t really use WhatsApp for government business. But this confirms the opposite.
“The public have been misled about the biggest crisis the country has faced in a generation.”
Jackie Baillie said: “This blows the defence of the SNP government and several current and former ministers that government business is not done on WhatsApp to shreds.
“It is clear for all to see that senior politicians and civil servants have had lengthy important discussions on WhatsApp and that there has been a deliberate attempt to hide the truth.
“The public deserve full transparency but they have been completely failed by politicians – including Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf – who have sought to mislead the people of Scotland.
The Scottish Government, said: “We are committed to transparency, best practice in handling Freedom of Information requests and to learning lessons from the UK Covid Inquiry evidence sessions.
“The very extensive range of the evidence being gathered for submission to the Covid Inquiries on WhatsApp and text messages has supported current and former Ministers to identify messages that were thought not to be in scope previously, or for them to access messages previously deleted via other individuals who hold messages.
“The First Minister has commissioned an external review into the use of mobile messaging apps and non-corporate technology in the Scottish Government. An announcement will be made on this soon.
“We are co-operating fully with the intervention opened by the Scottish Information Commissioner’s office into the use of informal communications.”
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