Scotland: Nicola Sturgeon Released Without Charge

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Facts

  • The former Scottish first minister and Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Nicola Sturgeon was on Sunday evening released without charge, pending further investigation, after being detained and questioned for more than seven hours.1
  • The 52-year-old member of the Scottish Parliament, whose arrest is linked to the Operation Branch probe involving SNP finances, maintained her innocence in a statement on Twitter, saying she had "committed no offense" and calling the current situation "a shock and deeply distressing."2
  • The news follows the arrest of Sturgeon's husband and former chief executive of the SNP, Peter Murrell, who was questioned and subsequently released as part of the Police Scotland's probe in April.3
  • The investigation into potential wrongdoing within the SNP's fundraising in July 2021 was launched after a formal complaint was filed by a party activist, who claimed that over £666K in donations raised since 2017 for a second independence referendum had been misused.4
  • Sturgeon, Murrell, and SNP treasurer Colin Beattie were the three registered officers listed on the front of the party's most recent accounts submitted to the Electoral Commission, which held £97K despite the referendum having never been held.5
  • Opinion polls indicate that the Labour Party is gaining support in Scotland at the expense of the SNP ahead of the general election expected next year. The SNP is the third-largest party in the UK House of Commons, and has represented 48 of Scotland's 59 districts since 2019.6

Sources: 1Guardian, 2Daily Mail, 3BBC News, 4Independent, 5The Telegraph, and 6Bloomberg.

Narratives

  • Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Daily Record. By outrageously insisting on continuing the bizarre investigation into indyref2 donations, Police Scotland is promoting a circus while failing to bring charges against anyone. Once this spurious case is over, the Scottish Parliament must scrutinize Operation Branch and how investigations were handled.
  • Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Sky News. Sturgeon and Murrell, once the hardline leaders of Scotland's election-winning machine, have fallen from grace and dragged the party into its biggest crisis in decades. It's evident that something suspicious has happened within the SNP, especially after a luxury motorhome was seized outside the home of Murrell's mother.

Predictions