Following the arrest of Nicola Sturgeon on Sunday for questioning in connection with the ongoing Police investigation into financial irregularities within the SNP, there are increasing calls for her to be suspended from the Party.
Ash Regan, the MSP who unsuccessfully stood to replace Sturgeon as Party leader, said that Sturgeon should resign her SNP membership until the furore around the party’s finances is “cleared up” and Humza Yousaf should suspend her if she refuses.
Regan went onto say that the former first minister’s arrest risked becoming a “distraction” for Mr Yousaf in his efforts to lead the party and Scotland.
Ms Regan said that Ms Sturgeon was “no doubt” considering resigning her SNP membership, despite Sturgeon’s protests that she was “innocent of any wrongdoing” after she was released by police on Sunday evening.
The SNP MSP and former minister noted there was “precedent” for this, a reference to Alex Salmond resigning from the SNP in August 2018 as he sought to clear his name of sexual misconduct charges. He was later cleared of sexually assaulting nine women when he was first minister.
But Ms Regan said Mr Yousaf should examine suspending Ms Sturgeon if she refused to resign and suggested she could have breached the party code of conduct, stating that “members should refrain from conduct that’s likely to cause damage or hinder the party’s aims”.
In a direct challenge to Mr Yousaf, a Sturgeon loyalist, Ms Regan said he must take “decisive action” to protect his party and his government.
Figures from Scotland’s other main political parties joined the call for Sturgeon to be suspended. Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader, said Ms Sturgeon suspended four high-profile SNP politicians when she was leader that were facing “perhaps less” serious allegations.
The Scottish Tories and Angus MacNeil, the SNP MP for the Western Isles, have also demanded Ms Sturgeon’s suspension. He said: “This soap opera has gone far enough.”
We at the Homeland Party would support the call for Sturgeon to do the right thing and stand down until this investigation is complete, and if she refuses for Yousaf to should show some leadership and suspend her himself.
Over the years Sturgeon and the SNP have demanded that figures from other parties stand down in the face of investigation into their behaviour. In many cases the allegations against those figures have been nowhere near as serious as the allegations the SNP are facing now, but it appears that Sturgeon does not hold herself to the same high standards as she attempts to hold others too. Yet again we see barefaced hypocrisy from senior members of the SNP.
Scotland has suffered under SNP rule since 2007 and they have shown an increasing disregard for democracy and contempt towards the Scottish voters as their time in office has progressed. It is high time that Scotland saw a change of Government.
We shall continue to update this story as the investigation develops.
