Former Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon appeared emotional during her hearing on Wednesday as part of the public inquiry into the management of the Covid pandemic, explaining that she had felt
“overwhelmed”
by the scale of the situation.
“I was prime minister when the epidemic hit.
A big part of me wishes I hadn't been, but I was and I wanted to be the best head of government possible
,” she said, her lip trembling and wiping away a tear.
“It is up to others to judge whether I have succeeded
,” added the former leader of the Scottish independence party.
Nicola Sturgeon also explained that she felt
“overwhelmed”
by the seriousness of the situation at the start of the pandemic.
“Perhaps more than anything, I felt an overwhelming responsibility to do my best
,” she added.
Nicola Sturgeon resigned from her post a year ago, to everyone's surprise.
She said she lacked energy after being head of the Scottish government for nine years.
Local governments are responsible for, among other things, health in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Nicola Sturgeon's popularity had increased sharply as she delivered daily briefings on the pandemic, contrasting with the impression of improvisation given by the government in London.
Nicola Sturgeon admitted deleting WhatsApp messages sent and received during the pandemic, but claimed her use of the app for government business was
“extremely limited”
.
In December, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was questioned as part of this public inquiry into why he had not provided around 5,000 WhatsApp messages sent between the end of January and June 2020. He then claimed that the The app had
“somehow”
automatically cleared them.