Nicola Sturgeon wrongly excluded colleagues from Covid decisions | investigation finds Covid inquiry
Nicola Sturgeon excluded senior advisers from decision-making during the pandemic by holding “golden leadership meetings” with a small circle, reducing transparency and accountability, a Covid inquiry has found.
In a damning report into how UK politicians have handled Covid, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been criticized for presiding over a “toxic and chaotic” culture and making late decisions that cost lives.
Along with the UK government, the leaders of the devolved nations came under heavy criticism, with the report stating that “there was a serious failure on the part of the four governments to appreciate the level of risk and disaster faced by the UK”.
It emerged that Sturgeon, who was then First Minister of Scotland, was a “serious and hard-working leader who took responsibility for decisions” but excluded other senior decision-makers.
The Scottish Cabinet became “a certifying body rather than the final decision-making body” and gold’s informal leadership structure reduced transparency.
This “also deprived decision-makers of a broader range of perspectives,” the report found.
“The Scottish Cabinet should have been more involved in decision-making in Scotland.
“This would have ensured greater transparency and enhanced accountability for decisions made by the Gold leadership and, increasingly, Ms Sturgeon.”
Sturgeon was Scotland’s first minister from November 2014 to March 2023. Responding to the report, she said her government was “fully engaged in the decision-making process”, and minutes from the time showed it was “not some sort of rubber stamp”.
In Wales, the investigation found that the death rate from Covid-19 was exacerbated by failed or delayed restrictions.
The Welsh Government was notified on 5 October 2020 that further restrictions were needed but did not implement a two-week ‘firebreak’ lockdown until 23 October, at a time when it had the highest age-adjusted death rate of the four nations.
Mark Drakeford, the former First Minister, told the inquiry he initially believed the UK Government would be responsible for the pandemic response, but the report said the Welsh Government “should have recognized the seriousness of the situation in January and February 2020 and taken its own steps to prepare”.
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The report was particularly critical of Northern Ireland’s pandemic response, saying it was “deeply divided along political lines and plagued by leaks, resulting in an incoherent approach.”
She said the decision-making process was marred by political disagreements between ministers from the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin. Like the rest of the UK, this was ‘a recurring case of too little, too late’.
She also said that then-Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill’s attendance at the funeral of veteran republican Bobby Storey in June 2020, and her initial refusal to apologise, contributed to tensions in the executive committee.
“The least the public should expect is that those making the rules will adhere to them,” she said. “Instances where ministers and chancellors appeared to flout Covid-19 rules have caused significant distress to the public.”
O’Neill, now First Minister of Northern Ireland, said she welcomed the report, calling it “an important milestone in the long journey of recovery after the pain and trauma caused by the Covid pandemic.”