Former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been arrested as part of an investigation into the finances of the Scottish National Party, ending 48 hours of political drama in the UK.
Sturgeon, who led the campaign for Scottish independence, was released without charge later on Sunday. Police Scotland, which confirmed her arrest, said a 52-year-old woman was questioned by detectives for several hours before being released at 5.24pm.
The investigation is continuing and a report will be sent to the Crown Office and the Procurator Fiscal Service, Prosecution Scotland, police said. The arrest comes less than three months after Sturgeon stepped down as leader of the SNP and head of Scotland’s semi-autonomous government in Edinburgh.
No one has been charged and Sturgeon said on Twitter that she knows “without a doubt that I am innocent of any wrongdoing”. But whatever the outcome, Sturgeon’s arrest underlines a period of upheaval for the SNP and casts a shadow over a formidable figure whose party has dominated Scottish politics for more than a decade.
It also comes as opinion polls show the opposition Labor Party is gaining support in Scotland, seen as a key battleground as leader Keir Starmer tries to capitalize on turmoil in the SNP and the ruling Conservatives United Kingdom to take power in an election expected next year.
On Friday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak suddenly faced another obstacle to uniting the Conservatives after his predecessor Boris Johnson resigned as a member of parliament along with two allies.
Sturgeon has been one of the UK’s most popular politicians in recent years, challenging successive UK Conservative prime ministers on the hottest issues of the day, from austerity measures to leaving the European Union and pandemic management.
His departure at the end of March came as he tried and failed to force the government in London to allow another referendum on independence. The SNP will hold a special conference later this month to consult party members on the way forward.
Meanwhile, officers have been investigating whether £600,000 ($754,000) in donations to the SNP to help the campaign for Scottish independence could have been used for other purposes.
Sturgeon led the party and Scotland’s semi-autonomous government from late 2014 until her shock resignation in February. Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell, who was the party’s chief executive, had previously been detained in the investigation along with the party’s former treasurer. Sturgeon’s questioning by police had been widely expected.
The inquiry, and its dramatic aftermath, has left her successor, Humza Yousaf, struggling to navigate the SNP through its most trying time in years. After a divisive leadership contest in March, his ability to get the party back on track will be tested in the next general election.
According to John Curtice, a politics professor at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, the SNP’s work could benefit Labor as it tries to regain popularity in Scotland and oust Sunak’s Tories in a general election due in January 2025. However, it would be a mistake to cancel the SNP, he said.
In 2019, when Johnson won a majority in Westminster, the SNP took 48 of Scotland’s 59 constituencies. The SNP, the third largest party in the UK House of Commons, still held a significant lead in the polls in Scotland after Sturgeon’s resignation and the inquiry became public.
The SNP has weathered scandal before. In March 2021, Sturgeon became embroiled in a bitter row with her predecessor and former mentor, Alex Salmond, over her handling of sexual harassment allegations and whether she broke the ministerial code. He won again big in the Scottish parliamentary election two months later, and used that mandate to strengthen his push for an independence referendum.
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(With the assistance of Tiago Ramos Alfaro and Colin Keatinge)
