SNP MSPs should quit the party if they refuse to fully support ex-leader Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister Humza Yousaf has said.
Yousaf, 38, told nationalist MSPs during a meeting in Holyrood on Tuesday that anyone who failed to publicly support his decision to allow scandal-stricken Sturgeon to retain the whip was damaging the cause of independence.
The former First Minister was arrested by Police Scotland on Sunday as officers continue to investigate complaints about how more than £600,000 of money raised through online appeals was spent.
Sturgeon was released without charge pending further investigation.
Humza Yousaf succeeded Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader and First MinisterPASNP rebels Ash Regan and Michelle Thomson, who were present at the meeting, have been putting pressure on Yousaf to suspend Sturgeon while Police Scotland concludes its Operation Branchform probe.
SNP MP Angus MacNeil also criticised Yousaf over the handling of Sturgeon’s arrest.
He said: “This soap-opera has gone far enough, Nicola Sturgeon suspended others from the SNP for an awful lot less!”
A source told The Times: “It was a clear display of him trying to show he is not weak by threatening his own MSPs.”
A police car outside Nicola Sturgeon's home in Glasgow
PA
However, a spokesman from the SNP rejected accounts from sources, claiming they were “not an accurate reflection of the First Minister’s comments”.
Sources from the meeting also claim Yousaf argued Scotland was closer to independence than ever before.
He supposedly went on to warn that disunity would threaten momentum behind the nationalist campaign.
Opinion polls since Yousaf succeeded Sturgeon at Bute House suggest a second independence referendum is too close to call.
Nicola Sturgeon's was also arrested and a motorhome on her mother in law's driveway seized
PAHowever, support for the SNP has fallen by around 10 points since the turn of the year.
Speaking to journalists, the First Minister claimed he “did not read the riot act” to SNP rebels.
He added: “I was listening, I was engaged as any good leader would do.
“I had a really constructive conversation with the SNP group.”
Humza Yousaf defended his predecessor when confronted by journalistsPAYousaf had also described Sturgeon as the “most impressive politician I think we’ve seen in Europe” as the SNP’s deputy leader Keith Brown confirmed Scotland’s longest-serving First Minister was sent flowers.
Sturgeon’s predecessor Alex Salmond, who now leads Alba Party, invited wavering SNP MSPs to join him in his own nationalist faction.
He said: “Those who want to come on board can come on board”.
Salmond also defended Yousaf over refusing to sanction Sturgeon, claiming: “I actually think that Humza Yousaf has set a perfectly defensible line — the presumption of innocence.
“You don’t suspend people until they are charged with something, and that hasn’t happened as yet.”
Scottish independence supporters march through Glasgow during an All Under One Banner march
PA
However, the former First Minister added: “His difficulty, of course, is that it wasn’t the position adopted by Nicola Sturgeon or Peter Murrell, the chief executive, her husband, when they were in power.
“I mean, they used to suspend people at the drop of a hat basically.”
A number of other SNP figures have also been arrested during Police Scotland’s investigation.
Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell, who previously served as SNP chief executive, was arrested in April when officers searched the couple’s Glasgow home.
SNP treasurer Colin Beattie was also subsequently arrested.
