SCOTLAND’S First Minister vowed today to “internally investigate” vanishing messages, as he stands accused of misleading Parliament during the pandemic.

Yesterday, as part of the UK Covid-19 inquiry, it emerged that WhatsApp messages, and notes taken during the crisis by senior ministers — including Humza Yousaf and his predecessor, Nicola Sturgeon — had been destroyed, deleted, or had not been made available to the inquiry.

Lead solicitor to the Scottish Covid Bereaved, Aamer Anwar, described the situation as “devastating” for families who want to know the truth, and questioned the credibility of the apparent lack of notes taken in the context of the former First Minister’s recent book deal in which she pledged to chronicle her career, including during the Covid crisis.

Mr Anwar said: “It is difficult to understand how a politician can provide an accurate account, several years removed, of being in the room, who was present, the relationships involved, and how decisions were arrived at, without having any contemporaneous notes to assist them.”

Despite the inquiry making clear that all electronic messages, including texts and the use of apps such as WhatsApp and Signal should be made available to it — and the First Minister telling parliament they would — Scotland’s Solicitor-General Jamie Dawson KC was forced to tell the inquiry on Thursday night that he believed the majority no longer existed.

In a note, he stated: “The majority of the messages have not been retained by witnesses.”

Confusion grew further after the Scottish government’s own legal counsel challenged the inquiry to issue a Section 21 order to force the release of any remaining information from its own clients.

Section 21 orders were last used to force the release of the messages between UK ministers, most notoriously those sent by partygate premier Boris Johnson. Inquiry chair Lady Hallett has indicated she “will not hesitate” to use them again.

Questions are now being posed by Labour’s Dame Jackie Baillie on the First Minister’s conduct of the affair.

Writing to Mr Yousaf, she said: “This new evidence strongly suggests the statements you made in Parliament were not accurate and you may therefore have misled Parliament.

“At the least there must be an investigation into whether this constitutes a breach of the ministerial code.”

Mr Yousaf is yet to comment on the allegations, but told the parliament: “We will internally investigate fully, because my understanding, certainly as I stand here today, is that relevant information has been passed over.”