SNP MSPs to buy Nicola Sturgeon flowers following arrest

Speaking to reporters in Holyrood, Keith Brown, the party's deputy leader, said it was an expression of the group's support for their ex-leader, "given what she has been through over recent days.”

The former first minister was quizzed by detectives for seven hours on Sunday as part of Police Scotland's probe into the SNP's funding and finances. 

She was released without charge, pending further investigation.

In a statement, Ms Sturgeon insisted she was “innocent of any wrongdoing.”

Since 2021, Police Scotland has been investigating whether £660,000 raised by the SNP to fight a second independence referendum campaign, was spent on other things.

Ms Sturgeon was the third person to be arrested as part of Operation Branchform. 

Her husband, the former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, was arrested in April, with the then SNP treasurer, MSP Colin Beattie, arrested later.

The two men were also released without charge. 

SNP MSPs gathered in Holyrood for their regular Tuesday group meeting. They were addressed by Mr Yousaf and, over the course of an hour, applause could be heard through the doors. 

Most MSPs leaving the room refused to talk to waiting journalists. 

Asked if the group was unified, Deputy First Minister Shona Robison insisted they were. 

MSP Ash Regan, who stood against Mr Yousaf for the SNP leadership, and who has called on Ms Sturgeon to resign “until this can be cleared up” said she had nothing more to add.

She was followed by MSP Michelle Thomson, who was suspended while previously an SNP MP over a police inquiry that came to nothing.

n a statement on Monday, Ms Thomson said she was a strong believer in natural justice and the presumption of innocence.

However, she said the processes set up under Ms Sturgeon’s own leadership “were clear”, and cited her own forced resignation of the SNP whip despite never being arrested.

She left the room in the company of former deputy first minister John Swinney and declined to say anything more to press.

Mr Brown told waiting media: “We’ve just had a very constructive group meeting – you may have heard the applause for the First Minister and huge support, both for him and the former first minister, to whom we have agreed to send some flowers as a mark of sympathy, given what she has been through over recent days.”

The Tories criticised the decision to send Ms Sturgeon flowers. MSP Roz McCall said: "It would be laughable if this wasn’t such a serious subject.

"The public will be wondering why it is a priority for the SNP to send flowers to someone arrested a matter of days ago.

“This just shows how senior figures in the SNP are still in thrall to their former boss despite her now being a suspect in a live police investigation.

“Although Keith Brown says the flowers will be coming from the SNP group, you suspect any accompanying card wasn’t signed by the likes of Ash Regan and Michelle Thomson, who have backed calls for Nicola Sturgeon to be suspended.”

Meanwhile, former first minister Alex Salmond claimed Ms Sturgeon would have suspended an MSP in the same situation. 

He told the Holyrood sources podcast: “I know what I would do and I know what Nicola Sturgeon would have done with Nicola Sturgeon if there had been other people in other circumstances.”

Asked to clarify, he said: "I'm suggesting that Nicola Sturgeon would have suspended Nicola Sturgeon under these circumstances. No question about that.

"But look, what Humza decides to do with the internal discipline of another political party and not the one I lead is a matter for Humza.”

Mr Salmond also told the podcast that the SNP was facing a potential "extinction event."

"Maybe that's a bit alarming, but if you don't change course, then that's where it's heading," he added. 

"Momentum works two ways. It can work in your favour, very substantially. Reverse momentum is equally compelling. And they have to shift the narrative."

He said the narrative now was that the "SNP find it difficult to run a tap in the Scottish Parliament."