Nicola Sturgeon's arrest is a hammer blow for the SNP
The former first minister's detention raises the stakes to the highest levels for a party that has been trying to rebuild after a nightmare year.
Sunday 11 June 2023 21:57, UK
This is the bombshell that senior SNP figures feared but knew was probably coming.
Nicola Sturgeon's arrest is seismic. It was unthinkable a few short months ago.
The party she once led was a political powerhouse run on a system of discipline.
But since her shock resignation earlier this year, there have been some nationalist figures emerging to suggest the SNP under Ms Sturgeon and her husband Peter Murrell was secretive.
Leaked videos from around the time the police probe began showed Ms Sturgeon rubbishing suggestions all was not well with the SNP's finances. The former first minister will have faced those very questions in a police interview suite under caution as a suspect.
Detectives will have been careful given the huge sensitivities in this case.
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It has been suggested Ms Sturgeon's detention was inevitable given the other two names on the latest SNP financial accounts were previously arrested.
But it still is incredible to see the reality play out in front of our eyes.
Politically this is a hammer blow for the SNP who have been trying to rebuild after a nightmare year so far.
Humza Yousaf's premiership has been bogged down in discussions over a lack of transparency during the Sturgeon era. He has been trying to reset and rebuild but this arrest is the biggest blow yet.
Mr Yousaf and Ms Sturgeon are close allies.
Read more:
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Arrests, a luxury motorhome and a power couple's fall: The inside story of SNP police probe
The new SNP leader has leaned on his predecessor for advice in recent months, but he will now be wanting to distance himself from the chaos of an escalating police inquiry.
There will be a fresh wave of questions about the implications of this latest development on the SNP and its electoral fortunes.
Opposition parties will seize the moment and attempt to tie the current investigation with how the government is being led.
Ms Sturgeon stayed away from Holyrood for a while after her husband's arrest.
When she returned, she was visibly distressed, breathless, and nervous in a way we have never seen before.
Her own detention raises the stakes to the highest levels.
This is the SNP's biggest moment yet - but for all the wrong reasons.