Iain Macwhirter Iain Macwhirter

Why is the SNP refusing to give Sturgeon the boot?

(Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Nicola Sturgeon – progressive icon, feminist champion, scourge of corrupt Tories – is, almost by definition, incapable of wrongdoing. As she insisted after her arrest on Sunday: ‘I know beyond doubt that I am in fact innocent of any wrongdoing.’ It is her truth. Her MSPs agree and have, we’re told, sent her flowers to soothe her distress at this injustice.

It was therefore something of an inconvenience that Police Scotland noted in their press statement on Sunday that the former FM had been ‘arrested as a suspect’ in their investigation into the funds and fundraising of the Scottish National Party. She was released seven hours later without charge and with the police reminding reporters and social media sleuths that this is an ongoing criminal investigation.

But it really didn’t sound good, did it? So the deputy leader of the SNP, Keith Brown, suggested that the police misspoke when they used the ‘a’ word.

Written by
Iain Macwhirter

Iain Macwhirter is a former BBC TV presenter and was political commentator for The Herald between 1999 and 2022. He is an author of Road to Referendum and Disunited Kingdom: How Westminster Won a Referendum but Lost Scotland.

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