SNP leader Humza Yousaf needs to take “decisive and quick action” or the party will be in trouble at the next general election, defeated leadership candidate Kate Forbes has said.
Ms Forbes, defeated by Mr Yousaf in the race to succeed Nicola Sturgeon, has spoken spoke out as police investigations into the party’s finances saw a second arrest and fresh turmoil.
On Tuesday Police Scotland arrested SNP treasurer Colin Beattie MSP as part of an ongoing investigation into how more than £600,000 in donations to the party earmarked for an independence referendum had been used.
Ms Forbes said claims about the party’s finances had been “mind-blowing”, saying there were “questions over integrity, trust, transparency”.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Leading Scotland Where? programme, which airs on Wednesday evening, that “right now, people are watching with astonishment, but they want to see leadership in dealing with it and resolving it”.
Ms Forbes said: “I think we need decisive and quick action or we will be in trouble. I think right now, people are watching with astonishment, but they want to see leadership in dealing with it and resolving it.”
She continued: “The danger will be if there is an absence of decisive and quick action. We are at a pretty critical moment and it will be the response and the reaction that determines how big a problem this is for the SNP.”
Ms Forbes stated: “Right now with questions over integrity, trust, transparency – I think voters are watching extremely carefully.
“We perhaps have the next election in the early part of next year. They will vote in that election on the basis of how we have sorted out our internal problems – even more than that, how we govern.”
She added: “There is still time to sort it out. But, I said throughout the campaign, I’m afraid I’m going to say it now – continuity won’t cut it.”
Former chief executive Peter Murrell, who is married to Ms Sturgeon, had previously been arrested and questioned, before being later released without charge, with the couple’s home also being searched by officers.
Mr Yousaf is facing calls to suspend SNP membership from Ms Sturgeon and those under investigation, with the Scottish Tories saying the former leader, her husband and Mr Beattie should all be suspended.
The SNP leader said on Tuesday that he does “not believe” the party is operating in a criminal way following Mr Beattie’s arrest, but resisted calls to suspend him as treasurer.
Mr Yousaf said he wanted to discuss “pertinent issues” with Mr Beattie – who was last night released without charge pending further investigation – and said: “People are innocent until proven guilty.”
Speaking about Ms Sturgeon and Mr Murrell, Ms Forbes said the couple were “obviously a very good team in the sense of managing the SNP”.
But she added: “There’s no question that since then there have been lots of questions about transparency, the integrity of the systems and structures, and it doesn’t matter how slick the optics are – you need good governance.”
Fellow leadership candidate Ash Reagan said SNP figures should be suspended if “significant wrongdoing” was found, saying she and others were “shocked” by the latest arrest.
An SNP spokesperson said: “We have no comment on a live police investigation.”
