Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon (Image: Getty)

       Nicola Sturgeon branded Boris Johnson a "f****** clown" in WhatsApp messages during the Covid pandemic.

       The former Scottish first minister made the foul-mouthed rant to her then chief of staff Liz Lloyd while Mr Johnson ordered a second national lockdown.

       The messages were revealed as Ms Lloyd gave evidence to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry today.

       In the exchange on October 31 2020, Ms Sturgeon said: "This is f****** excruciating. Their comms are awful."

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       She then added of Mr Johnson: "He is a f****** clown."

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       Ms Sturgeon also said the then Prime Minister's "utter incompetence in every sense is now offending me on behalf of politicians everywhere".

       She insisted that the Scottish Government did "not get nearly enough credit for how much better than them we are".

       Giving evidence to the inquiry, currently sitting in Edinburgh, Ms Lloyd was asked if the exchange showed there was a "perception amongst Nicola Sturgeon and the wider Scottish Government that it was doing so much better than the UK Government in the pandemic response around this time".

       She told junior counsel to the inquiry Usman Tariq the messages related "specifically to the communications aspect of the response".

       Ms Lloyd said: "That is sometimes dismissed but communications is very important in a public health situation, people need to know what to do and why and to understand it and to trust in it."

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       She claimed that day had been "quite shambolic in the UK Government", and she highlighted "the sort of chaos that appeared around some of the decisions they took".

       Ms Lloyd added: "We were clearly not very complimentary about their communications handling that day."

       It comes as Ms Sturgeon, who has come under fire for deleting her WhatsApp messages from the pandemic, is due to give evidence to the inquiry next Wednesday.

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