The official advised Humza Yousaf on how to avoid wearing a mask, UK Covid survey finds

Humza Yousaf is said to have been advised by one of Scotland’s most senior health officials at the height of the Covid crisis on how to avoid wearing a face mask in public, a public inquiry has heard.

Private text messages show that Jason Leitch, Scotland’s national clinical director, told Yousaf that all he had to do was hold a glass in his hand to avoid having to wear a mask as he stood with people at a dinner to talk.

Leitch told Yousaf, Scotland’s then Health Secretary, that “officially” everyone had to wear a mask when they were talking. “But literally no one does that,” Leitch added.

“Always keep something to drink in your hands. Then you are exempt. So if someone comes up to you and you stand up, pick up your drink.”

Jamie Dawson KC, counsel for the UK Covid inquiry, challenged Leitch on that call, asking him if he was offering Yousaf a “solution” so he wouldn’t have to wear a mask.

Dawson added that this was what Yousaf was “trying to achieve”. It was “a solution to try to allow (Yousaf) to attend the meeting, not wear a mask and not follow the rules,” he said.

Leitch denied the accusation and downplayed its significance. “If this were a broader and very important piece of guidance, I wouldn’t feel comfortable with that at all. This was a small nuance within the general guidelines on food and drink,” he told Dawson.

It was a “tricky area” that even he found difficult to understand, Leitch said. The rules said guests did not have to wear a mask while eating and drinking, but were not specific about what to do if they got up to talk to someone not at their table.

“I told him he should have something to drink in his hands. He wouldn’t drink it all the time, but if you had a drink in your hands you didn’t have to wear a mask,” he added.

Leitch said he himself was caught at another dinner party when he was photographed standing without a mask.

“Strictly speaking that was breaking the rules, but it was at a dinner and at a social occasion and that’s why I thought it was legitimate, and (Yousaf) is asking (about) exactly that scenario,” Leitch added .

Dawson said these messages were exchanged just as Covid cases began to rise in November 2021 due to the Delta variant, and shortly before Omicron spiked infection rates to almost eight times those seen during the first wave of the pandemic.

“If the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care didn’t understand the rules, what chance did anyone else have?” Dawson asked.

Leitch was also challenged by Dawson and Heather Hallett, the chair of the inquiry, over whether he had cooperated with another senior civil servant’s recommendations that deleting WhatsApp messages meant they could circumvent Freedom of Information laws .

Leitch was shown messages he had read and responded to from Ken Thomson, then the Scottish Government’s director general for strategy and external affairs, in which Thomson said: “Just to (seriously) remind you that to find out is under FoI. Know where the ‘clear chat’ button is…”. Leitch replied: “DG level entered there” and then “done”.

Hallett said these messages “suggest that there has been quite an enthusiastic adoption” of the policy to remove messages.

Leitch said his response was lighthearted, but “that was certainly not my position.” My position was that I followed the guidelines and was not particularly enthusiastic or otherwise about removal.”