Nicola Sturgeon insists resignation before Operation Branchform arrests was 'coincidence of timing'

Nicola Sturgeon has insisted her resignation just weeks before the arrest of her husband was a "coincidence of timing".

The then SNP leader stunned the political world when she announced her intention to quit as First Minister on February 15 last year.

She officially left office on March 28 - just days before former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell was arrested on April 5 as part of an on-going investigation into SNP finances.

MSP Colin Beattie, the party's then treasurer, was later arrested on April 18 last year before being released without charge.

Sturgeon was arrested and questioned for several hours on June 11 last year before also being released without charge. She has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Murrell was last month rearrested and formally charged with embezzlement of party funds.

Sturgeon was asked about her resignation while speaking at the Charleston Literary Festival in the south of England on Sunday.

Explaining her decision to resign, she said: "I think, in politics, you reach a point where you know in yourself that you don't have as much to give anymore.

"I also thought that politics in Scotland, like politics everywhere right now, is pretty polarised".

She said she had reached "the point where I thought I was part of that problem" because there is no one in Scotland who "doesn't have an opinion about me whether good or bad - and I'm not sure many people are indifferent".

Detectives launched Operation Branchform in July 2021 following complaints over how the SNP had spent more than £600,000 of donations supposedly ring-fenced for independence campaigning.

The investigation was ramped up in spring 2023 when a house belonging to Sturgeon and Murrell was searched by officers for two days.

Scotland's most senior police officer said last week that detectives probing SNP party finances will report their findings to prosecutors “in a matter of weeks”.

Police Scotland’s Chief Constable Jo Farrell said in a broadcast interview she had a team of “very skilled” individuals working on the long-running case.

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