Nicola Sturgeon: 'No cause for concern' about SNP finances in March 2021
Nicola Sturgeon described weeks since her husband’s arrest as “traumatic” but she refused to discuss the police probe, avoiding questions about the SNP’s purchase of a motorhome. The former first minister also said she has not been questioned by police in relation to the probe into the party’s finances. Asked by journalists in her first appearance at Holyrood since the arrest of her husband, Ms Sturgeon said “no”, when asked if she had been questioned by detectives.
Ms Sturgeon added: “What I will say up front is that I’m not going to go into any detail that impinges on a live police investigation.
“There are many questions that I would want to be able to answer and in the fullness of time I hope I will answer but it would be wrong and inappropriate for me to go into any detail of what the police are currently investigating.”
She added that “now is not the easiest time” and that she had been working from home.
The former First Minister, who stepped down earlier this year, said she could not have imagined “in her worst nightmares” the controversy engulfing the SNP.
But she denied it was the reason she resigned.
Speaking to journalists at Hollyrood, she said: “I understand the view that some people might have, that I knew this was all about to unfold and that’s why I walked away.
“Nothing could be further from the truth.
“I could not have anticipated in my worst nightmares what would have unfolded over the past few weeks.”
The SNP is currently subject to a police investigation into whether £600,000 earmarked for independence campaigning was diverted elsewhere in 2021.
Ms Sturgeon’s husband was arrested released without charge 11 hours later.
Mr Murrell – who had been chief executive since 2000 – stepped down earlier this year for unrelated reasons.
He said he had planned to step down after the SNP leadership contest had concluded but was doing so earlier than planned because his “future has become a distraction from the campaign”.
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