HUMZA Yousaf admitted to a top pandemic adviser that he copied his quotes word for word — so it would look like he knew what he was “actually talking about”.
WhatsApp texts reveal the then Health Secretary informed Professor Jason Leitch he had often “plagiarised” him.
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Details of the now First Minister’s messages to the National Clinical Director were revealed last week at the UK Covid-19 Inquiry just days after it emerged he had confessed to “winging it” in his key post at the peak of the global health crisis.
In their seemingly light-hearted exchange, Mr Yousaf told Prof Leitch he would try to parrot his words during public appearances.
The messages show the medical expert asking the SNP minister, who had just been handed the health brief, if he needed his sign-off on media requests — known as “bids”.
At the time Prof Leitch regularly appeared at Nicola Sturgeon’s TV Covid briefings and on weekly BBC radio shows like Off The Ball.
He texted Mr Yousaf: “I’m going to presume you don’t need to see every one of my bids for permission?
“We kind of just do it. And there are often loads. Clearly you need profile and do all the politics.”
Mr Yousaf replied: “Not for permission no but helpful to know what bids you’re doing so I can catch up as I often plagiarise what you are saying — verbatim . . . just to make it look like I know what I’m actually talking about.”
Last night Scottish Lib Dems leader Alex Cole-Hamilton claimed the chat proved the First Minister was “flying by the seat of his pants”.
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He said: “NHS staff look to the Health Secretary for leadership.
“At a time of national crisis, they can tell when someone is making it up as they go along.
“On Humza Yousaf’s watch, staff and patients were badly let down.”
Scots Tory chairman Craig Hoy agreed Mr Yousaf’s admission came as “little surprise”.
The MSP piled in: “This may be amusing to Humza Yousaf and colleagues but, for thousands of Scots who lost loved ones during the pandemic, this was no laughing matter.
“Maybe if Humza Yousaf had spent more time focused on his job, rather than playing political games during a pandemic, he would have had a far better grip of his brief.”
In other WhatsApps previously published by the inquiry, Mr Yousaf admitted “winging it” and feared he’d “get found out sooner rather than later” after being appointed Health Secretary in May 2021.
Rivals claimed the texts, from June of that year, proved he was “out of his depth”.
In the same exchanges Prof Leitch accused Labour’s Daniel Johnson of being a “smart a**e” and Tory MSP Edward Mountain of “harrumphing like a child”.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “As noted in its closing statement to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry’s Module 2A hearings, throughout the pandemic the Scottish Government’s sole focus and intention was to protect the people of Scotland from the harms of Covid-19.
“We await the publication of the Inquiry’s report with interest and remain wholly committed to assisting the UK and Scottish Covid-19 Inquiries in their important work.
“The Scottish Government has provided a high volume of documentary information and in-person evidence to the Inquiry and it would be inappropriate to comment further while the Inquiry’s considerations of this is ongoing.”
We told how then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was grilled at the inquiry on Wednesday over deleted messages and her decision making.
The former SNP supremo denied using the pandemic to further her independence ambitions. And she refuted suggestions of deviating from Westminster’s strategy to score points.
She became teary as she admitted to being “overwhelmed” by the Covid battle.
But Scottish Secretary Alister Jack later claimed he “did not believe” his political rival, saying: “I looked at her performance and thought she could cry from one eye if she wanted to.”
He claimed tensions between the UK and Scottish Governments were “inevitable” because Ms Sturgeon “saw her job as leader of a nationalist government to break up the UK”.
The Tory minister also admitted he had erased all his WhatsApps to free up storage capacity on his phone in November 2021.
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But he expressed “regret” and said he would have not done so if he could “turn the clock back”.
UK Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove also told the hearings the SNP’s main aim was to “destroy” the Union.
