Nicola Sturgeon has said “I am certain that I have done nothing wrong” as she spoke publicly for the first time since she was arrested and released without charge by police investigating the SNP’s funding and finances.
The former First Minister was seen returning to her home in Glasgow on Sunday afternoon, the first time she has been back to the property since she was arrested one week earlier.
She told reporters gathered outside the property: “You know I can’t say very much just now.
“What I will say is [to] reiterate the statement I issued last Sunday, which is I am certain that I have done nothing wrong.
“I intend to be back in Parliament in the early part of the week. I’ll make myself available for questions then, obviously within the constraints that I am referring to right now.
“For now, I intend to go home, catch up with some family.”
Asked if she was considering voluntarily resigning from the SNP in the wake of her arrest, Ms Sturgeon replied: “I have done nothing wrong, and that is the only thing I’m going to say today.”
She added: “It’s for others to comment as they see fit, but that’s my position, and I’m entitled to take it.
“I know I’m a public figure, I accept what comes with that, but I’m also a human being that’s entitled to a bit of privacy and my neighbours are also entitled to a bit of that as well.”
Asked whether any conditions have been placed on her arrest, she replied: “No and I’m not going to get into anything other than that.”
Last Sunday Ms Sturgeon was questioned for almost seven hours in relation to Operation Branchform, the ongoing Police Scotland investigation into her party’s funding and finances, before being released without charge pending further inquiries.
She issued a statement later saying she was “innocent of any wrongdoing” and had “committed no offence”, describing her arrest as “both a shock and deeply distressing”.
Three SNP parliamentarians – MSPs Ash Regan, Michelle Thomson and MP Angus MacNeil – have since called for her membership of the party to be suspended until the police investigation concludes.
They are concerned that the ongoing police investigation is a distraction from other issues and point out that while she was leader, Ms Sturgeon was quick to suspend others if there were any claims of wrongdoing, even if they were later dropped.
However, Humza Yousaf has rejected calls for him to take action against the former party leader, her husband Peter Murrell and former treasurer Colin Beattie, who were arrested in April.
At a group meeting at Holyrood last week, SNP MSPs agreed to send flowers to Ms Sturgeon as an expression of their “support” in the wake of her arrest.
Mr Yousaf also described his predecessor as the “most impressive” politician in Europe and used an address to the meeting to call for unity, winning several rounds of applause from MSPs in the process.
