Humza Yousaf ‘ties himself in knots’ over Sturgeon and says he won’t boot her out of SNP
Story by Katie Harris • 1h ago
Humza Yousaf has been accused of “tying himself in knots” after rejecting calls to suspend Nicola Sturgeon from the crisis-hit SNP. The new Scottish First Minister yesterday defended his predecessor after a leaked video appeared to show her dismissing concerns over the party’s finances.
Mr Yousaf said he was not “disturbed” by the clip and added he did not think she should be suspended from the SNP.
Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy said Mr Yousaf is “getting himself tied in knots over this issue”.
Mr Hoy told the Daily Mail: “How can he refuse to countenance suspending Nicola Sturgeon, when he has not even spoken to her about the SNP’s murky finances and is vowing not to do so?
“A cynic might say that he doesn’t want to ask questions in case he gets uncomfortable answers.
“The obvious thing to do would be to suspend Nicola Sturgeon unless and until she is cleared. That is the precedent the SNP set in the cases of Michelle Thomson and Natalie McGarry.
“The former First Minister and her former chief executive husband should not get special treatment when they have such serious questions to answer.”
The leaked video, published by the Sunday Mail, appears to show the then-First Minister addressing a meeting of the party’s ruling national executive committee (NEC) in March 2021.
“She told the NEC that the party had “never been in a stronger financial position than it is now”.
“Ms Sturgeon added: “I’m not going to get into the details … but just be very careful about suggestions that there are problems with the party’s finances because we depend on donors to donate – there are no reasons for people to be concerned about the party’s finances and all of us need to be careful about suggesting that there is.”
After the video surfaced, the Scottish Tories led calls for Ms Sturgeon to be suspended from the SNP, which has been plunged into turmoil by a police probe into its finances.