Sturgeon’s arrest a ‘watershed’ for the nationalist cause

For former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, the crisis that befell her Scottish National Party after she stepped down in March was already beyond her “worst nightmare”. On Sunday the dream became even worse.

Sturgeon’s arrest by police probing SNP finances is not only a blow to the reputation of one of Scotland’s most influential politicians of recent decades, but also a threat to maintaining national dominance and furthering his cause of independence from the UK. There is also a blow to his party’s hopes.

Gerry Hassan, a professor at Glasgow Caledonian University who writes on the SNP, said the arrest was a “watershed moment” for the SNP.

Hassan said that since the SNP gained control of the Scottish government in 2007, its supporters have become more important. , , The extent of the SNP’s leadership style,” he said.

The arrest of Sturgeon, who was later released without charge on Sunday, pending further investigation, follows efforts by Humza Yusuf, the SNP leader and his successor as Scotland’s first minister, to regain the political initiative. also got a big blow.

Joseph, who was the continuation candidate in the hotly contested leadership race after Sturgeon’s resignation was announced in February, has since seen his victory overshadowed by a widespread fallout from Police Scotland’s Operation Branchform.

In 2021 it was claimed that the SNP had spent money raised to fight a future referendum on other things. Peter Murrell, the former SNP chief executive and Sturgeon’s husband, was arrested in April, as was Colin Beattie, the party’s then treasurer. Both men were also released without charge pending further investigation.

A spokesman for Sturgeon said the former first minister had taken part in an interview with Police Scotland on Sunday “by arrangement” and would “co-operate with the investigation”.

In a later statement on Twitter, Sturgeon said she had committed no crime and that being arrested was “a shock and deep distress”.

“I would never do anything to harm the SNP or the country,” she wrote.

A sweeping police investigation with setbacks for the SNP government on issues ranging from ferry provision to recycling policy has opened the way for Labor to gain ground ahead of next year’s general election in Scotland.

In 2019, the SNP won 48 of Scotland’s 59 Westminster seats, while the Labor Party won just one. But many nationalist constituencies are now looking vulnerable.

a suggestion vote Last month Ipsos Mori, together with broadcaster STV, found that the proportion of voters supporting the SNP in the UK general election had fallen 10 points to 41 per cent in the past six months.

While Ipsos trailed the Labor Party on 29 percent, party strategists say they expect it to gain more than 20 seats in Scotland next year.

A senior Labor figure said the SNP’s difficulties were “an opportunity we need to seize”. But he cautioned that further impact on the ruling party’s vote share could be limited. People’s views on whether Scotland should leave the UK have largely driven voting patterns in Scotland since voters rejected independence by 55-45 per cent in a 2014 referendum.

The Labor figure said, “The issue of independence has become very communal in the sense that it has put a hold on people and dictates how they should vote which is difficult for other parties.”

Nor does the SNP’s crisis mean that the cause of independence is dead. Opinions suggest Scotland is broadly evenly divided on the merits of ending its three-century-old union with England.

But worryingly for Joseph, the Ipsos poll found signs that the SNP’s near-monopoly on support for independence supporters could be weakening – signs that will please the main UK parties who have to share the pro-union vote between them.

To bolster support for the SNP, Joseph has sought to distance himself from his predecessor by promising better governance and transparency in party management.

Her efforts to bring political attention back to her government’s priorities have been undermined by ongoing uncertainty within the party – a difficulty likely to be exacerbated by Sturgeon’s arrest.

Mark Diffley, founder of the Edinburgh-based polling company, said: “While this has been an ongoing police investigation, this is probably the furthest part of it.” “It will probably come as a shock to many voters.”

Sturgeon’s arrest could also lead to a split within the party. The former First Minister, also known as the Opponent, was one of the most influential politicians of his generation, popular with many SNP members.

But Yusuf came under immediate pressure to suspend his predecessor from the party. “This soap-opera has gone too far. Nicola Sturgeon suspended others from the SNP for very little! Angus McNeill, an SNP MP who has been critical of the party leadership, wrote on Twitter. for the time being till the investigation is concluded either way.”

Sturgeon is the second former SNP minister to be arrested. Alex Salmond, her one-time mentor turned rival, was arrested and charged with sex crimes and attempted rape in 2019. The next year, Salmond was acquitted of all charges against him.

Murdo Fraser, a Conservative member of the Scottish Parliament, tweeted: “Now as many former SNP ministers have been arrested as part of a criminal investigation, there are giant pandas in Scotland.”