Questions need to be asked over the selection of Michelle Thomson as an SNP candidate and the party's vetting procedures, according to political opponents.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said there was a question around the "probity" of the SNP's candidate selection while Scottish Labour said "real questions" have to be asked over the selection of Ms Thomson to stand for parliament.
At First Minister's Questions on Thursday, Nicola Sturgeon was challenged on her party's knowledge of the business dealings of Ms Thomson, now an MP.
It came after it emerged Ms Thomson is to help police with their inquiries into property deals conducted five years ago. She has been linked with deals involving a solicitor who has since been struck off.
Ms Thomson, who was this year elected as the member for Edinburgh West, has denied any wrongdoing and withdrawn herself from the party whip, a move which also means her membership of the SNP is suspended.
Ms Sturgeon told Holyrood the SNP did not know about MP's business dealings until reports began to emerge in the newspapers.
Questioned on the subject today, Ms Davidson told the BBC's Sunday Politics Scotland show: "I think there's a question here about the probity of their (the SNP's) candidate selection.
"It's incredibly difficult, all political parties have people that come to them and say they want to stand and you do the vetting as best you can.
"I think what people need to know is ... what kind of candidate vetting procedures went on in the SNP?"
Scottish Labour said "real questions" need to be asked over the selection of Ms Thomson.
Jackie Baillie MSP, Labour's public services spokeswoman, said: "Every day brings fresh embarrassment for the SNP over the selection of Michelle Thomson as a parliamentary candidate."
An SNP spokesman said: "This issue is under investigation by the relevant authorities, so Labour and the Tories should allow that to come to a conclusion and for all the facts to be examined - instead of indulging in mud-slinging and a rush to judgement."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel