Nicola Sturgeon called Boris Johnson a ‘f***ing clown’, Covid WhatsApps revealSource: UK Covid-19 Inquiry
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00:00 Prime Minister Boris Johnson began his address announcing the second national lockdown.
00:05 And I want to pick up the messages between yourself and Nicola Sturgeon, which starts
00:12 10 minutes into the address. So if we read the first message on the 31st of October at 6.40 UC,
00:21 hitting the 15 minutes between the rugby and strictly to lock the country up, let us never do
00:26 this like this. Nicola Sturgeon replies, "Their comms are behind awful. We're not perfect,
00:33 but we don't get nearly enough credit for how much better than we are." She then replies,
00:39 "This is f***ing excruciating. Their comms are awful." Then she goes on to say, "His utter
00:45 incompetence in every sense is now offending me on behalf of politicians everywhere." You reply,
00:51 saying, "I have a separate WhatsApp with," and the names Redacted and Davie, "and we are offended on
00:56 behalf of spads everywhere." Nicola Sturgeon says, "He is a f***ing clown." So was there a perception
01:05 amongst Nicola Sturgeon and the wider Scottish government that it was doing so much better than
01:11 the UK government in the pandemic response around this time? I think this refers specifically to the
01:16 communications aspect of the response.