Humza Yousaf is facing his second-ever FMQs just a day after his party’s treasurer was arrested by police.
The First Minister was interrupted by protesters and parliament was suspended temporarily.
Colin Beattie was questioned by detectives for hours on Tuesday as part of Police Scotland’s investigation into SNP funding and finances.
He was then released without charge, pending further investigation.
Later, he resigned as the party’s treasurer as well as his role on the Scottish Parliament’s Public Audit Committee.
He had been treasurer since 2004.
As leader of the SNP, Yousaf will not take over from Beattie.
Getty ImagesBut he said he hopes to appoint a new treasurer soon.
He said: “We’ll appoint a treasurer in the coming days, but of course, as party leader, I’ll make sure I’m overseeing the finances of the party. But we’ll appoint a new national treasurer as soon as we can.”
The post is usually one elected by members but Yousaf said the party is “not going to have time” to elect someone to the role, and he ruled out continuing in the job alongside being party leader and First Minister.
Asked by the BBC if he had pushed Beattie to resign, Yousaf said: “Colin and I had a conversation, as you’d expect us to do, and he understood that the best thing for the party was for him to step back as being national treasurer.”
FMQs also comes after the First Minister made his first major policy statement to Holyrood.
In it, he revealed the Government’s flagship recycling programme – the deposit return scheme – will be delayed by ten months.
And he announced that from October, a six-month pilot will see peak fares on ScotRail trains scrapped.
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