By Andrew MacAskill and Alistair Smout
LONDON (Reuters) – The Scottish National Party’s treasurer was arrested by police on Tuesday as part of an investigation into the finances of the governing pro-independence party that has damaged its image and undermined its new leader.
Police Scotland said a 71-year-old man had been arrested as a suspect in its ongoing inquiry. The party’s leader said the arrested man was the SNP treasurer Colin Beattie.
The investigation is looking at what happened to more than 600,000 pounds ($750,000) raised by Scottish independence campaigners in 2017, which was supposed to have been ring-fenced but may have been used for other purposes.
The arrest comes as the SNP, Scotland’s dominant political party, faces deepening questions about its governance and finances. Opposition parties said the party was mired in scandal and struggling to govern Scotland.
Scotland’s longest serving leader of its semi-autonomous government, Nicola Sturgeon, caught the political world by surprise when she announced her resignation in February, sparking a divisive race to succeed her.
Humza Yousaf, who won the contest last month after pitching himself as the continuity candidate, has seen the first few weeks of his premiership dominated by questions about the party’s credibility.
Arriving at Scotland’s parliament on Tuesday, Yousaf told reporters “people are innocent until proven guilty” but said “of course, I’m surprised when one of my colleagues has been arrested.”
Peter Murrell, Sturgeon’s husband and the party’s former chief executive, was arrested and then released without charge earlier this month as part of the party funding investigation.
Polls show support for the SNP and Scottish independence has dropped since Sturgeon’s departure.
Beattie is the long-serving treasurer of the SNP, having held the post between 2004 until 2020, and then again since 2021.
Yousaf announced he was postponing the introduction of a bottle deposit return scheme that many Scottish food and drinks companies warned would be unworkable and would hit profits.
(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill, Editing by Kylie MacLellan, Alexandra Hudson)
