Scotland’s former first minister Nicola Sturgeon briefly arrested in ruling party’s finances probe

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Scotland’s former first minister Nicola Sturgeon has been arrested as part of a police investigation into the finances of the Scottish National Party.

Police questioned Ms. Sturgeon for more than seven hours on Sunday before releasing her without charges pending further investigation.

In a statement after her release, Ms. Sturgeon said her arrest was “deeply distressing” and insisted she had done nothing wrong. “To find myself in the situation I did today when I am certain I have committed no offence is both a shock and deeply distressing,” she said. “I know beyond doubt that I am, in fact, innocent of any wrongdoing.”

Her arrest marked a dramatic twist in the police probe, which began in 2021 and is concentrating on the alleged misappropriation of around £600,000 in donations to the party. In April, officers questioned Ms. Sturgeon’s husband, Peter Murrell, the SNP’s long-time chief executive. They also raided the couple’s home in Glasgow as well as the SNP’s headquarters in Edinburgh. The party’s former treasurer, Colin Beattie, has also been questioned by police.

The deepening police inquiry is a major blow to the party, which has seen its popularity fall sharply in recent weeks. Humza Yousaf, who took over as SNP Leader and First Minister in March, has been scrambling to respond to the growing crisis.

Mr. Yousaf had been a close confidante of Ms. Sturgeon and he ran for the leadership promising to follow many of her policies. In a BBC television interview broadcast on Sunday just hours before her arrest, Mr. Yousaf said he kept in touch with Ms. Sturgeon. “Why would I not want to get some advice from arguably one of the best politicians, the most impressive politicians, Europe has seen over the last couple of decades?” he said.

A SNP spokesperson said later that the party has been co-operating fully with the police investigation but added that it would not be appropriate to comment publicly while the probe was continuing.

But some critics and SNP members were quick to call on Mr. Yousaf to suspend the former leader from the party.

“This soap opera has gone far enough, Nicola Sturgeon suspended others from the SNP for an awful lot less! Time for political distance until the investigation ends either way,” Angus MacNeil, an SNP member of Parliament, said in a Tweet.

“The SNP continue to be engulfed in murkiness and chaos,” said Craig Hoy, chair of the Scottish Conservative Party. “Humza Yousaf must now show some leadership and suspend his predecessor from the SNP.”

For Ms. Sturgeon, 52, the police investigation puts a tarnish on a remarkable political career that saw her lead Scotland for nearly a decade and passionately advocate for Scottish independence.

She joined the SNP at 16 and won a seat in the Scottish legislature when the chamber was created in 1999. She served as deputy leader when the SNP won power in 2007 and took over as leader in 2014 shortly after Scots rejected independence in a referendum.

She and Mr. Murrell married in 2010 and instantly became Scotland’s power couple. They transformed the SNP into a campaign juggernaut and guided the party to 11 election victories in a row at all levels of government. Ms. Sturgeon was elected First Minister with increasing seat totals in 2016 and 2021.

Opinion polls consistently put her at the top of the list of the U.K.’s most popular politicians and, in recent years, she became an irritant for a string of British prime ministers by constantly pushing for another vote on Scottish independence.

She suddenly announced her resignation in February, telling a news conference that she no longer had the drive to serve as First Minister. At the time, there were questions about the scope of the police investigation, but Ms. Sturgeon insisted it had no bearing on her decision to step down.

Mr. Murrell, 58, resigned from his post the following month, amid questions about the party’s membership figures. He took responsibility for providing misleading information to the media about the figures, which later showed that membership had dropped from 104,000 in 2021 to just over 72,186.

As the party’s former CEO, Mr. Murrell has also been at the centre of the police investigation.

Police have zeroed in on £666,953 in donations to the SNP from 2017 to 2020. The money was supposed to have been earmarked for a second referendum campaign on independence, but some of the cash allegedly went to fund other activities. Questions surfaced when the party’s 2021 financial report showed the party had a deficit of £752,000 and £145,000 in cash assets.

Police seized a £110,000 motorhome, which was discovered at the home of Mr. Murrell’s mother. The luxury vehicle was bought by SNP party chiefs ahead of the 2021 Scottish election.

Last year, the party also confirmed that Mr. Murrell lent the SNP £107,620 in 2021 to address cash-flow issues. The SNP said the party had repaid about half the money as of October, 2021.

Mr. Murrell has denied any wrongdoing.