WESTMINSTER politicians should face the same levels of scrutiny as Scottish ministers have at the UK Covid Inquiry, an SNP MP has said.
Following three weeks of evidence hearings in Edinburgh, including a marathon session from former first minister Nicola Sturgeon and revelations about Scottish Secretary Alister Jack deleting his WhatsApps, the fallout from the probe continues.
However, one SNP MP has said that Westminster politicians, such as Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, who have previously given evidence to the Inquiry, should be scrutinised just as thoroughly.
READ MORE: Has Covid WhatsApp row ‘ruined’ Nicola Sturgeon’s legacy?
The Prime Minister and Johnson have both failed to provide WhatsApp messages to the probe.
It also emerged last week that Sturgeon had not retained her messages.
During an interview on BBC Scotland's Sunday Show, Hendry said that Scotland is the “most scrutinised nation in the UK” after being asked if he believed the Inquiry was badly impacting the public view of the SNP.
“We're holding our own inquiry, the only nation in the UK that's doing that, and we've got the most transparent freedom of information laws in the UK,” he said.
“I think it's absolutely fair to scrutinise this we need to learn lessons from COVID so that we can react better into the future, and I'm sure that the same scrutiny will be applied to Boris Johnson and to Rishi Sunak and England that is being applied to here in the fullness of time.”
Before the Scottish evidence sessions kicked off, members of the Covid bereaved group, who lost family members to the virus during the pandemic, urged ministers to “do better” than their Westminster counterparts when giving evidence.
Johnson came under fire for his attempts to “spin” his appearance at the Inquiry in his favour when he gave evidence in London last year.
“I’m saying that if the scrutiny that is applied in Scotland is applied in the rest of the UK, particularly with the UK government, then we will probably learn a lot more than we are more about how to deal with this in the future,” Hendry said.
“Because as your previous item covered, it's important, not only to learn lessons about the disease itself and how it develops into the future, but also how we deal with a pandemic into the future.
READ MORE: ‘Scottish independence question won’t go away because of SNP crisis’
“I think that should be not only transparent as it is here in Scotland, but transparent across the rest of the UK.”
It comes as the Sunday National reports that Jack has been accused of “hypocrisy” after it was revealed his deleted messages included conversations with the then-prime minister and Cabinet members about issues impacting Scotland.
The Scottish Secretary claimed he did not “do government by WhatsApp” - but his written statement revealed he had exchanged messages with Johnson and a variety of ministers.
The coverage of the inquiry has also come under scrutiny, particularly in regards to coverage of Sturgeon’s emotional evidence session, and media coverage of her tears.
Last week, Culture Minister Christina McKelvie said that women’s emotions are “treated like sport” by some in the media, while experts have said the coverage can be seen through a sexist lens.
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