Former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said Boris Johnson was “wrong the person to be prime minster”, during evidence given to the Covid Inquiry.

Asked by inquiry lawyer Jamie Dawson if she shared other witnesses views that Boris Johnson was the wrong person to be prime minister during the pandemic, Sturgeon said: “Boris Johnson was the wrong person to be prime minister, full stop”.

When asked about her suitability for government, Sturgeon tearfully said: “I was the first minister when the pandemic struck and part of me wishes I hadn’t been. It is for others to judge if I succeeded.”

Sturgeon’s administration has come under fire for taking five more days to introduce testing on patients discharged to care homes from hospitals than the government in England.

She denied there was any lack of urgency in testing arguing this reflected a lack of capacity.

When cross examined on the government’s policy to delete WhatsApp messages during the pandemic, Sturgeon admitted she had deleted her messages.

Under questioning on whether ishe had been “open, transparent and accountable” in her actions and words, she answered: “We will not have got every decision right and we will have made misjudgements and there will be undoubtedly instances put to me today where, on reflection, I will think we could have been more transparent than we were.”