Nicola Sturgeon used private SNP email account for government business and shared it with adviser
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Nicola Sturgeon is facing a fresh secrecy row after it emerged that she used a private email account to conduct government business during the pandemic.
Messages disclosed on Tuesday at the Covid Inquiry between Ms Sturgeon and Professor Devi Sridhar, an academic who became one of her favourite advisers, show that the politician invited her to email her on an SNP-run account.
Ms Sturgeon’s spokesman denied in 2019 that she used a personal email, which at the time would have been under ultimate control of her husband Peter Murrell, then SNP chief executive, for government work.
However, she told Prof Sridhar in June 2020 “don’t worry about protocol” before giving her an SNP address, alongside a government one.
She said Prof Sridhar could reach her “privately” on the SNP account or “officially” at the Scottish Government one, adding “either way fine by me”.
The difference between a SNP email and a government-run account is significant as political parties are not subject to Freedom of Information requests, meaning a private account could potentially be used to dodge scrutiny.
Ms Sturgeon is already under intense pressure after it emerged that she wiped all her WhatsApp messages, meaning they could not all be provided to the UK Covid Inquiry.
She deleted exchanges despite being subject to requests and legal orders telling her to retain relevant information.
Asked whether private SNP emails had been provided by Ms Sturgeon to the inquiry or had also been deleted, her spokesman declined to clarify.
“This is another astonishing revelation about Nicola Sturgeon’s shameful attempts to evade scrutiny,” Craig Hoy, the Scottish Tory chairman, said.
“On top of deleting all of her WhatsApp messages, Ms Sturgeon, then first minister, was content to carry out sensitive government business via her personal party email in spite of the reservations of her adviser.
“This matters because she knew fine well that personal email exchanges can’t be obtained through Freedom of Information requests.”
He added: “It was calculated, secretive and unacceptable from a politician whose reputation is now shot to pieces. What was Nicola Sturgeon trying to hide?”
Reports emerged in 2019 that Ms Sturgeon was using a SNP email to conduct government business, provoking comparisons with Hillary Clinton’s controversial use of a private account and server while US secretary of state.
At the time Ms Sturgeon denied using a private email, direct Twitter messaging or WhatsApp to conduct government business, a claim undermined by recent revelations.
Prof Sridhar provided multiple Twitter direct messages with Ms Sturgeon to the Covid Inquiry in which the pair discussed the handling of the pandemic.
The pair became close during the crisis, with Prof Sridhar even offering to become Ms Sturgeon’s personal fitness trainer.
The Florida-born University of Edinburgh academic made a series of interventions in which she backed Ms Sturgeon’s handling of the pandemic while attacking the UK Government.
She supported the SNP government’s push for an “elimination” strategy during 2020, while Westminster was keen to reopen society as much as possible.
In a message in May 2020, Ms Sturgeon told Prof Sridhar that the “media can twist words, sometimes deliberately” after the academic complained she was frustrated with some news stories.
Ms Sturgeon told Prof Sridhar she had a “big influence on my thinking” in the same message.
Discussing her offer to help Ms Sturgeon exercise, Prof Sridhar, who was learning to become a personal trainer, said she had suggested that the first ninister become her “first client”.
She added: “It was a joke, nothing’s come of it, I haven’t had any sessions with her in the park or anything like that.”
