Gething automatically deleted messages, Covid inquiry hears

One of the men hoping to be the next first minister automatically deleted messages from his phone during the pandemic, the Covid inquiry has heard.

A barrister for a bereaved families group said Vaughan Gething used a disappearing messages feature when he was health minister.

The comments came during the first day of the UK inquiry's Welsh module, sitting in Cardiff.

Mr Gething said last week: "Everything I have got I have provided."

A senior adviser to the first minister, Jane Runeckles, was also said to have used disappearing messages.

But a Welsh government lawyer denied that WhatsApps were used for making decisions.

Tuesday was the first day of module 2B of the inquiry, which is examining the Welsh government's response to the virus.

The hearing also heard how a deputy minister called it "odd" that Welsh Labour cancelled its conference but allowed 20,000 Scottish fans to travel to Cardiff for a Six Nations game.

Vaughan Gething, who is now economy minister but held the health brief through the pandemic until May 2021, is running against Jeremy Miles to be the next leader of Welsh Labour.

The use of WhatsApps, and whether or not they have been retained, has been a controversial issue throughout the inquiry.

Nia Gowman, barrister for the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru group, told the hearing that the "limited messages" disclosed to the inquiry showed WhatsApp and texts were used to discuss government business "where they shouldn't have been".

"They show Welsh government senior special advisors suspiciously and systematically deleting communications," she said.

Messages were sent by special advisers to ministers reminding them to "clear out WhatsApp chats once a week", Ms Gowman 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," she added.

First Minister Mark Drakeford told BBC Wales in January he had used electronic means of communicating "very little" during the pandemic.

But Ms Gowman said Mr Drakeford was regularly using the texting system to discuss policy announcements and seek clarification on the rules.

The counsel to the inquiry itself, Tom Poole, said that hundreds of messages have been disclosed from "numerous Whatsapp groups".

But he said the inquiry will want to know why messages have been deleted.

The Welsh government's barrister, Andrew Kinnier, said that "neither Welsh ministers or senior officials used WhatsApps or indeed any other form of informal communication as a substitute for or supplemental means of decision-making".

The first day of the Welsh module heard opening statements from different groups asking questions of ministers and officials in the inquiry.

Mr Poole set out some of the questions the Welsh government will have to answer over the next few weeks, including whether ministers took the threat seriously enough at the start.

Mr Poole said the Welsh government's cabinet did not discuss Covid until 25 February, "a whole month later" after it was discussed by the UK government's cabinet for the first time.

The handling of mass gatherings - and whether the government should have called them off earlier in 2020 - is among the issues being examined.

Mr Poole revealed that Lee Waters, deputy minister for transport, said in a WhatsApp message that he thought it was an "odd signal to send" that Welsh Labour had cancelled its 2020 conference but allowed 70,000 to gather in Cardiff for Wales versus Scotland.

The match was cancelled the day before by the Welsh Rugby Union, but not before 20,000 Scottish fans travelled to Cardiff.

On the day lockdown was announced in March 2020, Vaughan Gething emailed himself an account of "chaos" in a Welsh hospital from a consultant.

"No protection for nurses, very low morale as being asked to care for patients admitted to orthopaedic wards by medics with respiratory symptoms, masks not being released," it read.

At the start of the hearing, chairwoman Baroness Hallett acknowledged that some had hoped for an independent Welsh inquiry.

She said that was not a decision for her, but she promised that the UK inquiry will do its utmost to "investigate and analyse fully and fairly the most significant issues that concern people in Wales".

The inquiry showed a video of testimonies of those impacted by Covid.

The emotional video detailed delayed diagnosis of cancer, the experience of trying to see relatives in hospital, and of patients catching Covid when they were admitted for other conditions.

After the hearing Plaid Cymru's spokesperson for health and social care, Mabon ap Gwynfor, claimed "Labour Welsh government's lies" had been "further exposed on the first day of the UK Covid inquiry".

"It is quite simply alarming that the most senior special advisers to the Labour Welsh government encouraged each other and others to 'clear out WhatsApp chat once a week', and that Vaughan Gething as the health minister at the time turned on disappearing messages," he said.

By Hugh Pym, BBC health editor

Relationships between the Welsh and UK governments during the pandemic were highlighted at different points in this first day of evidence in Cardiff.

Perhaps the most intriguing was over the role of the Treasury with Rishi Sunak at the time heading that department as Chancellor.

The issue of funding for the Coronavirus job retention scheme led to a disagreement between Mr Sunak and the Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford.

The Welsh government wanted to restore the funding when it implemented a limited firebreak lockdown in October 2020.

Rishi Sunak had refused though finances were made available a couple of weeks later when Westminster announced a lockdown in England.

The prime minister has submitted evidence to this leg of the inquiry which will be heard in the days ahead.

Counsel for the Welsh Government argued today that the Treasury only answered to central government and was not responsive to the requests of devolved nations.