Police Scotland‘s outgoing chief constable has denied Nicola Sturgeon was tipped off about the arrest of her husband Peter Murrell over the probe into the party’s finances.
Sir Iain Livingstone said the claim was “absolutely outrageous, and that nobody at his force informed the Scottish Government that the SNP’s former chief executive was about to be taken into custody.
Sturgeon, Murrell and former SNP treasurer Colin Beattie have all been arrested and subsequently released without charge as part of Police Scotland’s Operation Branchform, which is investigating what happened to around £600,000 raised by the party for independence campaigning.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon - 'I’m certain that I have done nothing wrong'
Livingstone was asked by STV News about speculation among MSPs at Holyrood that Sturgeon was informed about her husband’s arrest in advance.
“Categorically not, absolutely outrageous suggestion to imply that I or my investigative team act with anything other than total integrity,” he said.
“When an investigation develops, you have to go and start speaking to other witnesses, you have to go and start to take other steps.
“I do not know the reason that the former first minister resigned but I do know it was certainly nothing to do with any tip-off coming from my office or me personally.”
Murrell was questioned by detectives for 11 hours on April 5 before being released “pending further investigation”.
A large police tent was set up outside Sturgeon and Murrell’s home, which was taped off for hours.
Livingstone told STV’s Scotland Tonight that nobody from Sturgeon’s office had approached police about the status of the police investigation into the SNP’s funding and finances.
READ MORE: Sturgeon released after arrest over SNP finances probe
“Absolutely not, I don’t think they would,” he said.
“Now, people may feel I could have done other things as the chief constable, that I could have done more of this, less of that, but I don’t think any senior politician, or anybody who has observed policing in the last number of years in Scotland, would think that I am anything other than totally operationally independent – and I guard that rigorously.”
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