Humza Yousaf has rejected growing calls from across the political spectrum to suspend Nicola Sturgeon from the Scottish National party after her arrest on Sunday.
The first minister has been under pressure to suspend his predecessor and mentor after SNP parliamentarians and opposition leaders urged the party to take action or for Sturgeon to stand down voluntarily.
Sturgeon has publicly said she is innocent of any wrongdoing and Yousaf told the BBC he would treat her in the same way as Colin Beattie, the party’s former treasurer who was arrested and released without charge in the same police investigation in April.
“I see no reason to suspend their membership,” Yousaf said. “I have been leader now for 11 weeks. I have shown a consistency in terms of the approach.”
He added: “Others have been released without charge and I propose to treat Nicola Sturgeon exactly the same. I can’t account for decisions that were made before I was leader of the SNP.”
His remarks came after Michelle Thomson, an SNP MSP who was forced to resign the whip when she was an MP eight years ago, said it would be consistent with the party’s previous actions if Sturgeon voluntarily resigned the whip at Holyrood.
Thomson, who was caught up in an investigation into alleged mortgage mis-selling but later cleared, said she was a strong believer in the presumption of innocence. Even so, the SNP’s rules were clear, she said.
“After careful consideration, I feel that the right thing for the former first minister to do is resign the SNP whip. This is not because she doesn’t deserve to be treated as innocent until proven guilty – she does, but because her values should be consistent.”
Thomson was the campaign manager for Kate Forbes, the former Scottish finance secretary who narrowly lost to Yousaf in April’s SNP leadership contest.
Her remarks echoed demands over the last 24 hours from other internal critics of Yousaf’s leadership and from opposition leaders, who said the party had repeatedly suspended or forced out ministers and parliamentarians who were under investigation or accused of significant wrongdoing.
During Sturgeon’s period as leader, Derek Mackay was forced to quit as Scottish finance secretary, in 2021, after being accused of sending a 16-year-old boy inappropriate messages. In 2017, Mark McDonald was forced to resign as a minister after sending inappropriate messages to female staff.
The SNP’s wider divisions were further exposed when two allies of Alex Salmond, the former first minister who leads the rival and hardline pro-independence party Alba, called for Sturgeon to step aside.
Ash Regan, a former minister who came third in the race to succeed Sturgeon as leader, told BBC Radio Scotland: “Nicola should perhaps consider voluntarily resigning her SNP membership until this is cleared up.”
If Sturgeon did not voluntarily step down, Yousaf should consider suspending her, Regan added. “The leadership need to think about taking decisive action,” she said.
Angus MacNeil, the MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar and one of Salmond’s main allies inside the SNP, tweeted: “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.”
Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, said he would not comment on the SNP’s disciplinary processes but said the crisis was a test of Yousaf’s leadership and strength of character. “The question is for [Yousaf]: is he strong enough to take the action or is he too weak?” Sarwar said.
“The divisions between the Alex Salmond camp and the Nicola Sturgeon camp have caused real ruptures in the SNP. And whilst that was just about two individual personalities, it is now impacting on functional government, it’s impacting on whether we have a functioning transport infrastructure, a functioning NHS.”
The SNP, meanwhile, confirmed Sturgeon was paying her legal costs. It had earlier said her husband, Peter Murrell, was not receiving any financial support to meet his solicitor’s fees.
