Nicola Sturgeon should consider resigning her SNP membership until after the conclusion of the police probe that resulted in her arrest, former leadership candidate Ash Regan has said.
Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland on Monday, Regan said: “The Government needs to be completely focused on delivering public services and delivering for the people of Scotland in these difficult times.”
She said the probe into the party’s finances could be a “distraction”, adding: “I think that Nicola should perhaps consider voluntarily resigning her SNP membership until this can be cleared up.”
Resigning would “reaffirm (Ms Sturgeon’s) commitment to the principles of the party”, she added.
Asked if Ms Sturgeon should be suspended from the party, Regan said her successor as SNP leader and First Minister, Humza Yousaf, may already be considering such a move, adding: “Accountability in these type of situations is really important.”
Sturgeon was arrested and released without charge.
Meanwhile, there were no signs of activity at her home on Monday morning.
There appeared to be nobody at the property in Glasgow while a few journalists and photographers were gathered outside.
A senior Scottish politician has said Nicola Sturgeon should be suspended from the SNP after her “shocking” arrest and release without charge.
Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it was a “shocking state of affairs although not surprising, because I think we all anticipated that at some point Nicola Sturgeon would be arrested for questioning about the SNP finances because she is, of course, the third signatory on the accounts”.
Bailie added: “The question in my mind is, given all this chaos, given the kind of secrecy and cover-up that has been the hallmark of how the SNP operate, is whether Humza Yousaf, the current First Minister, is indeed strong enough to suspend her and protect the party.
“I’ve no doubt in my mind, he absolutely needs to do that.”
Asked what the consequences have been for Scottish politics, Baillie said: “The impact has been profound, irrespective of what the outcome is.
“The SNP appeal to the people of Scotland based on them projecting an image of being kind of morally superior to the ‘corrupt politics’, if you like, of the rest of the UK – now that clearly doesn’t work for them anymore.”
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