Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s former first minister, was arrested on Sunday by cops investigating the funds of the Scottish Nationwide Get together, which dominates the nation’s politics and which she led till her surprising resignation in February.
The information deepens the disaster engulfing the S.N.P., which campaigns for Scottish independence, following the sooner arrests of Ms. Sturgeon’s husband, Peter Murrell, the occasion’s former chief govt, after which of Colin Beattie, its former treasurer.
Each males have been launched with out being charged after questioning, however the newest improvement is a dramatic fall from grace for Ms. Sturgeon, a preferred politician who served as Scotland’s first minister for greater than eight years till she introduced her resignation.
That call took the political world abruptly and prompted a divisive race to succeed her that was in the end received by Humza Yousaf, beforehand Scotland’s well being secretary.
Nonetheless, Mr. Yousaf’s efforts to ascertain himself as Scotland’s new first minister have been overshadowed by the extraordinary drama after the current escalation of the police investigation into the S.N.P.’s funds.
In step with regular British protocol, Ms. Sturgeon was not named in an announcement from Police Scotland, which mentioned that “a 52-year-old girl” had on Sunday “been arrested as a suspect in reference to the persevering with investigation into the funding and funds of the Scottish Nationwide Get together,” including that she was “in custody and is being questioned” by detectives. The BBC and different British information shops recognized the arrested girl as Ms. Sturgeon.
Police Scotland’s inquiry, code-named Operation Branchform, started in 2021 and was reported to have adopted complaints in regards to the dealing with of round 600,000 kilos, or practically $750,000, in donations raised to marketing campaign for a second vote on Scottish independence. (A primary referendum on the query was held in 2014, with Scots voting by 55 % to 45 % in opposition to independence.)
The authorities are regarded as wanting into whether or not cash supposed to struggle for one more vote on independence was diverted for a distinct function, and to be investigating why Mr. Murrell made a mortgage to the occasion.
Mr. Murrell, who has been married to Ms. Sturgeon since 2010, held the publish of chief govt from 1999 till March, when he resigned after accepting blame for deceptive statements from the occasion in regards to the measurement of its dues-paying membership. Mr. Beattie resigned after his arrest.
After Mr. Murrell’s arrest, the British media reported that the police had seized a luxurious motor house parked exterior his mom’s home. Mr. Yousaf confirmed to reporters that the occasion had purchased the car — to make use of as a cell workplace for campaigns, officers informed native information shops — however mentioned that he solely discovered in regards to the buy after he grew to become chief.
On the time of her resignation, Ms. Sturgeon defined her determination by saying she was exhausted and had change into too polarizing a determine in Scottish politics to influence wavering voters to assist independence.
Some critics have since come to doubt that clarification however, when requested by the BBC in April if the police investigation of Mr. Murrell had prompted Ms. Sturgeon’s resignation, Mr. Yousaf replied: “No, I imagine Nicola Sturgeon completely that she had taken the occasion as additional ahead as she probably might.”
