Scotland’s first minister has said he will not suspend his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon from the Scottish National party a day after she was arrested as part of a long-running police investigation into the party’s finances.
Humza Yousaf said on Monday that he saw “no reason” to temporarily remove Sturgeon, whose arrest marked a big escalation in the probe. The former first minister was released without charge on Sunday following seven hours of questioning.
Yousaf’s decision came despite growing calls from within Scotland’s pro-independence governing party — including by former leadership rival Ash Regan — for him to act and prompted criticism from opposition parties.
“I won’t be suspending Nicola Sturgeon. I’ll be treating her in exactly the same” way as other officials arrested and later released without charge by police investigating the SNP’s finances, Yousaf told STV News. “There is no reason for me to suspend them.”
Earlier on Monday, Regan called on Yousaf to “consider” suspending Sturgeon, who remains an MSP, if she refused to leave the SNP temporarily.
“The leadership . . . need to really think about taking decisive action at the moment,” Regan told the BBC, noting that there was a precedent for party members under investigation to suspend their membership.
“Nicola should perhaps consider voluntarily resigning her SNP membership until this can be cleared up,” she added.
The comments by Regan — who came a distant third in the bitter leadership race to replace Sturgeon — follow a call on Sunday from SNP MP Angus MacNeil for the party to distance itself from its former leader because the “soap opera has gone far enough”.
They were echoed later on Monday by SNP MSP Michelle Thomson, in charge of the leadership campaign of former finance secretary Kate Forbes, who said it would be the “right thing” for Sturgeon to resign the party whip.
Opposition parties also rounded on Yousaf, with Douglas Ross, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, saying that the decision showed he was “a weak leader unable to stand up to his predecessor”.
Meanwhile, Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader, said the “shocking state of affairs” meant Yousaf “absolutely need[ed]” to suspend Sturgeon, but questioned whether he was “strong enough” to do it.
The crisis that has engulfed the SNP since Sturgeon announced her resignation in February escalated dramatically on Sunday when she was questioned by police in relation to Police Scotland’s Operation Branchform.
The investigation into the SNP’s finances, which began in 2021, was sparked by complaints from donors who claimed that more than £600,000 given to the party to fight a future independence referendum was spent on other things.
Peter Murrell, Sturgeon’s husband and former SNP chief executive, was arrested in April as part of the same probe, with Colin Beattie, the party’s then treasurer, detained later that month. Both men were released without charge pending further investigation.
After being released on Sunday, Sturgeon said she was innocent of any wrongdoing and that her arrest had left her shocked and distressed.
But the controversy has damaged efforts by Yousaf to mend the deep divisions in the SNP and threatens its dominance of Scottish politics ahead of a UK general election due next year.
Labour is hoping to win as many as 20 seats in Scotland, which would greatly enhance its prospects of a UK-wide majority.
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