The Labour Party has been accused of “stunning hypocrisy” this morning after it was revealed key Welsh ministers deleted WhatsApp messages received and sent during the Covid pandemic.
Vaughan Gething, who is currently a hopeful to become the next First Minister of Wales, served as Health Minister until May 2021 and reportedly had the app’s ‘automatic deleting’ setting turned on during the pandemic.
It means that, like with Scotland and Downing Street, key messages wanted by the Covid inquiry will go unseen.
Last week Mr Gething said: “Everything I have got I have provided.”
However a barrister for a bereaved families campaign group has now said Mr Gething and others used deleted WhatsApp messages to discuss government business “where they shouldn’t have been”.
Ms Nia Gowman said the revelation proved that Welsh Government special advisors were “suspiciously and systematically deleting communications,”.
Ms Bowman also claimed that messages were sent by advisors to Welsh Labour ministers reminding them to “clear out WhatsApp chats once a week”.
She said: “They showed Jane Runeckles, the most senior special advisor for the first minister for Wales, and Vaughan Gething, minister for health, turning on disappearing messages.”
The Welsh Conservatives have now accused Labour of hypocrisy, after they unearthed a clip of deputy leader Angela Rayner slamming Nicola Sturgeon as “irresponsible” for deleting WhatsApps during the pandemic.
The clip, filmed by STV News, saw Ms Rayner describe the SNP’s WhatsApp deletion as “appalling”.
She said: “Nicola Sturgeon has been First Minister for a long time. She knows that they were vital pieces of information, especially during the Covid situation that we faced.
“It was a grave situation. So to delete… I mean the Covid inquiry’s about learning lessons and it’s about giving answers to those that lost loved ones.
“You deleted those messages, you’re not giving a full picture. And of course they’re going to then think cynically, ‘why did you delete them? Did you not want to give people a full, transparent view of what happened over that period? I think it was wholly irresponsible.”
The Welsh Tories have now demanded to know what the Labour Government were “hiding”.
Leader Andrew RT Davies said Labour’s hypocrisy is “stunning”.
He said: “Angela Rayner called Nicola Sturgeon ‘appalling’ for deliberately deleting COVID WhatsApps, but now we know Labour Ministers in Wales were doing exactly the same thing.
“People who lost loved ones during the pandemic deserve better than this”.
