Rishi Sunak reported to police over Nicola Sturgeon joke

Rishi Sunak has been reported to police in Scotland for joking during his Tory conference speech that Nicola Sturgeon could go to prison.

Chris McEleny, the general secretary of Alex Salmond’s Alba Party, made a complaint to Police Scotland alleging that the Prime Minister had committed contempt of court.

Although Ms Sturgeon has not been charged with any offences, he pointed out contempt proceedings in Scotland start after an individual has been arrested.

In June Ms Sturgeon was interviewed as a “suspect” by detectives investigating the SNP’s finances. She was later released without charge pending further investigations and has since denied any wrongdoing.

The Prime Minister used his keynote speech to the Tory conference to state that the Union was “the strongest it has been in a quarter of a century”.

He then delivered the jibe about the police investigation into the SNP’s finances, prompting widespread hilarity from conference delegates.

“Nicola Sturgeon wanted to go down in the history books as the woman who broke up our country but it now looks like she may go down for very different reasons,” Mr Sunak said.

“We are a remarkable combination of four nations with a proud history, and that history should give us enormous confidence in our future.”

But Mr McEleny said: “The Prime Minister is commenting on, and making an assumption about a live Police Scotland investigation.

“In Scotland contempt applies from arrest, not from charging. Operation Branchform is investigating serious matters of the utmost importance.”

He added: “It is too important a matter to allow interference from the Prime Minister in this act of contempt when many people await the facts of Police Scotland’s investigation.”

Support for the SNP has been in a tailspin since Ms Sturgeon’s sudden resignation in February and the high-profile police investigation into the party’s finances.

Peter Murrell, Ms Sturgeon’s husband and the SNP’s former chief executive, has been arrested along with Colin Beattie, the party’s former treasurer. They are also released without charge pending further investigation.

Police searched the home Ms Sturgeon shares with Mr Murrell, erecting a large evidence tent outside, and confiscated a luxury motorhome from outside his elderly mother’s home.

Plan to upgrade A75

Mr Sunak also used his speech to pledge that some of the £36 billion saved from cancelling the northern leg of HS2 would be used to upgrade a key road linking Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The Prime Minister said improvements to the A75 between Gretna and the Scottish port of Cairnryan, where ferry crossings depart for Northern Ireland, would “connect our Union”.

The heavily congested and slow route in south-west Scotland was identified as a priority in Sir Peter Hendy’s Union Connectivity Review.

Mhairi Black, the SNP’s deputy Westminster leader, said: “Rishi Sunak’s speech underlines that no promise made by the Tories can ever be taken seriously.

“During their time in power, the Tories’ have failed time and time again to deliver on Scotland’s priorities - while simultaneously crashing the economy, fuelling a cost of living crisis, and plunging tens of thousands of families across the UK into poverty.”