Anas Sarwar says SNP faces ‘big questions’ after Peter Murrell arrest

Mr Murrell, husband of Nicola Sturgeon, was arrested on Wednesday morning as part of an investigation into the SNP’s finances.

Speaking to the PA news agency at the Parkhead Youth Project in Glasgow’s East End, Mr Sarwar said the situation was “extremely serious” and police should be “allowed to do their job”.

He added, “Both Humza Yousaf and Nicola Sturgeon need to be asked big questions and I hope those questions will be asked over time.”

The Scottish Labor leader said he believed Mr Murrell’s arrest was not the biggest news of the week.

Mr Sarwar said: “What we cannot forget is the real, lived experience that people are having across the country.

“Right now, people across the country are struggling to keep their heads above the waterline.”

“The biggest news of the week is that in Scotland we had our worst cancer wait times ever.”

Mr Sarwar said the £1million First Minister Humza Yousaf announced on Wednesday morning to tackle health inequalities in disadvantaged communities was “tinkering around with the edges”.

“We have structural inequality in our country, we have built-in inequality in our labor market, and tinkering with the fringes won’t do that.

“We need a government that is relentlessly focused on overcoming these inequalities, focused on the economic crisis and the NHS and not being distracted by scandals or divisions or talking to itself about itself.”

Mr Sarwar will visit Rutherglen and Hamilton West tomorrow for a campaign visit which could see by-elections in the coming months.

The seat is currently held by Margaret Ferrier, a former SNP MP who is now an Independent in the House of Commons.

Last week the House of Commons Standards Committee recommended she be given a 30-day suspension for breaking Covid rules.

Ms Ferrier lost the SNP whip and was criminally convicted after traveling from London to Glasgow by train while infected with Covid at the height of the pandemic.

The House of Commons will now vote on whether to impose her suspension.

If 10 percent of her voters sign a petition, she faces a by-election.