HUMZA Yousaf has refused to suspend Nicola Sturgeon from the SNP after she was arrested and questioned by police investigating the party’s finances.
The First Minister said he said “no reason” to withdraw the party whip from his predecessor as she had been released without charge on Sunday.
The Scottish Tories called him "weak" and claimed he was giving preferential treatment to Ms Sturgeon as she privately backed him to be SNP leader.
On a visit to Inverness, he told BBC Scotland that Ms Sturgeon's arrest was "quite painful personally" given their "long-standing friendship" but he had to "separate that from the really important job I have got to do as first minister".
He added: "I will do what I believe is right to the values of natural justice.
"Nicola Sturgeon, like Colin Beattie, like Peter Murrell, was released without charge. Therefore I see no reason for their membership to be suspended."
Asked if Sturgeon should voluntarily resign, the First Minister added: "There is no pressure on her to do so from me or the SNP."
It followed two SNP MSPs calling for Ms Sturgeon to lose the whip voluntarily.
Ms Sturgeon yesterday insisted she was “innocent of any wrongdoing” after being quizzed by detectives for seven hours as a suspect.
READ MORE: Sturgeon should resign SNP membership, says Ash Regan
Police Scotland has been investigating since 2021 whether £660,000 raised by the SNP for a second referendum was spent on other things.
In April, Ms Sturgeon’s home was searched and her husband, the former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, was arrested as part of the same probe, Operation Branchform.
The then SNP treasurer, MSP Colin Beattie, was arrested and questioned later the same month. Like Mr Murrell, he was released without charge.
Opposition parties have urged Mr Yousaf to suspend Ms Sturgeon from the party.
MSP Ash Regan, who stood against Mr Yousaf for the SNP leadership, today said Ms Sturgeon should consider giving up her SNP membership “until this can be cleared up”.
She was followed by MSP Michelle Thomson, who was suspended while previously an SNP MP over a police inquiry that came to nothing.
In a statement, Ms Thomson said she was a strong believer in natural justice and the presumption of innocence.
However she said the processes set up under Ms Sturgeon’s own leadership “were clear”, and cited her own forced resignation of the SNP whip despite never being arrested.
READ MORE: Rishi Sunak says Boris Johnson asked him to act improperly on honours
She said: “After careful consideration, I feel the right thing for the former First Minister to do is resign the SNP whip. This is not because she doesn’t derserve to be treated as innocent until proven guilty - she does - but because her values should be consistent”.
Asked why Ms Thomson had been asked to resign the whip but not Ms Sturgeon, Mr Yousaf said: “I can only account for decisions that have been made by me. I have been leader now for 11 weeks.
"I have shown a consistency in terms of the approach. 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."
Scottish Tory chairman Craig Hoy MSP said: “This is the action of a weak leader unable to stand up to the predecessor to whom he owes his job.
“Humza Yousaf’s claim that he has ‘no reason’ to suspend Nicola Sturgeon from the SNP is fooling no one.
He knows, as everyone else does, that there’s a clear precedent in his party for MPs and MSPs under investigation to be suspended until the conclusion of their case.
“And, in this instance, the police probe into the SNP’s murky finances is very much ongoing.
“Several senior SNP figures have already said it’s wrong for Nicola Sturgeon to receive favourable treatment by the party.
“But the reason Humza Yousaf will not follow the precedent – which was set by his predecessor when she was party leader – is because he’s hopelessly compromised by the fact that he only won the leadership election thanks to the backing of Nicola Sturgeon and her inner circle.”
Campaigning for an expected Westminster byelection in Hamilton, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said the decision was ultimately a matter for the SNP, but noted individuals had previously been suspended by the party.
He said: “The question is for Humza Yousaf, is he strong enough to take action? Or is he too weak to take action?
“That’s a decision for them, what I’m more interested in is the fact that we now have an incompetent and dysfunctional SNP Government, a Government now famed for secrecy, for cover-up and economic instability and incompetence.”
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