Nicola Sturgeon has said she knows “nothing more” about the police investigation into the Scottish National Party’s finances, for which she was questioned and then arrested in June 2023.
Police raided the home the former SNP leader shares with her husband Peter Murrell last April, shortly before she was arrested and her husband, who was chief executive for the party, was charged with embezzlement.
Authorities submitted a report to prosecutors in August but public updates on the investigation have been few and far between – and it appears that Ms Sturgeon is equally in the dark.
The political stalwart, who has always denied any wrongdoing, said she was “getting on with my life as best I can at the moment” in a rare comment on the proceedings, which have yet to come to a resolution.
Speaking to the PA news agency, Ms Sturgeon said: “I have nothing to add [on the status of the investigation]. Nothing to offer you on that.
“I know nothing more than I did back then and I can’t comment on it anyway.”
The ex-SNP leader is still MSP for Glasgow Southside and reportedly recently submitted nomination papers to the party ahead of the 2026 Holyrood election.
She said she has not yet decided whether to run again, but added that she is “not planning to go anywhere”.
In the meantime, Ms Sturgeon has found another way to fill her time – penning her memoirs, for which she has negotiated a £30,000 advance.
She said the decision to run or not – following the SNP’s crushing loss in the July general election, where it lost 39 of the 49 seats it won in 2019 – would be made “in good enough time to either confirm myself as a candidate or allow the party to choose someone else”.
Former SNP treasurer Colin Beattie was also arrested last year, but was released alongside Ms Sturgeon pending further investigation.
A spokesman for Police Scotland said: “On August 9, 2024, we presented the findings of the investigation so far to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and we await their direction on what further action should be taken.”
