Wearing a mask? No one does. Have a drink in your hand at ALL times. Then you’re exempt

The first minister asked the national clinical director if he had to wear a mask when speaking to people at an event, and was given advice to ‘work around’ the face mask guidance at the time.

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie, left,  said today that the high profile national clinical director, who appeared almost daily on TV at the time,  should be sacked.

She added: “Ken Thomson, the man who drafted the Scottish Government’s records management policy, was advising people how to avoid complying with it.

“The National Clinical Director, Jason Leitch, who helped to shape the Covid regulations, was advising the current First Minister how to avoid the rules.

“And Nicola Sturgeon, who promised transparency, has alongside John Swinney and senior civil servants deleted WhatsApp messages on an industrial scale.

“Whether messages were deleted nightly or weekly, it is clear that Jason Leitch wiped his messages completely and seemed to find the period during the pandemic all quite funny judging from the messages we have seen.

“If the Scottish Government agrees that his behaviour was inappropriate then it is time Mr Leitch was sacked.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton, right,  is also raging at what is being revealed by so-called star witnesses.

Responding to the evidence, which heard that Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer, Professor Gregor Smith, told colleagues to delete WhatsApp messages “at the end of every day” during the pandemic, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:

 “While families grieved, the Scottish Government destroyed evidence of what was going on behind the scenes and behind the decisions which gripped all of our lives.

“It’s disturbing to see some of Nicola Sturgeon’s closest advisers and officials joking about transparency and how to dodge it in the remnants of WhatsApp groups.

From the First Minister downwards, there was a pattern of people covering their own backs and limiting what would be available to the inquiries everyone knew would follow.

“At Nicola Sturgeon’s helm, bereaved families may forever be denied the understanding, the justice and the closure they deserve. There are major questions for her to answer, and I hope that she will agree to make a personal statement in Parliament to address them.”

Humza Yousaf was forced to ask for advice on his own Covid rules when he was health secretary, and informed of a loophole by Jason Leitch.

The now-First Minister messaged the national clinical director about whether he had to wear a mask when standing up at a dinner.

These messages dated from November 19, 2021, six months after Mr Yousaf was appointed as Jeane Freeman’s replacement and was when face masks were mandatory inside venues such as pubs and supermarkets.

But Mr Leitch, right, offered him a way to circumvent these rules, and admitted that “literally no one” follows these regulations.

The national clinical director was confronted with the messages at the UK Covid Inquiry where he was questioned by lead counsel Jamie Dawson KC.

The lawyer asked just why the Scottish Government’s then-health secretary needed to ask for help about the rules that he had been involved in creating.

In the correspondence, Mr Yousaf said: “I know sitting at the table I don’t need my mask. If I’m standing, talking to folk need my mask on?”

Mr Leitch responds and says: “Officially yes. But literally no one does. Have a drink in your hand at ALL times. Then you’re exempt. So if someone comes over and you stand, lift your drink.”

The First Minister then confirmed that he has used this loophole before as he wrote: “That’s what I’ve been doing at the other events I’m at.”

Mr Dawson asked why the then-health secretary felt “the need to clarify the rules with you about face masks?” And “did he not know what they were already?”

Mr Leitch suggested that there was an “ambiguity here” that he faced when the country reopened in late 2021 as social occasions were allowed to restart and events often involved eating.

He added that there was “some difficulty with the interpretation of mask-wearing inside the rooms when you’re eating, drinking or moving around.”

He then explained that this happened to him when he was approached for a picture when he was having his dinner and stood up without a mask on, breaking the rules. Jason Leitch then said he thought Mr Yousaf’s question was “legitimate as he was asking precisely that scenario.”