SNP facing ‘critical moment’, defeated leadership candidate Kate Forbes says

The SNP is facing a “pretty critical moment” with decisive action needed, or it “will be in trouble”, defeated leadership candidate Kate Forbes has said.

The former Holyrood finance secretary, who was defeated by Humza Yousaf in the race to succeed Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader and Scottish First Minister, spoke out as police investigations into the party’s finances continued.

Former chief executive Peter Murrell – who is married to Ms Sturgeon – has been arrested and questioned, before being later released without charge, with the couple’s home also being searched by officers.

On Tuesday Police Scotland also arrested SNP treasurer Colin Beattie, also the MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, as part of Police Scotland’s ongoing investigation into how more than £600,000 in donations to the party earmarked for an independence referendum had been used.

With the SNP also confirming it is currently without auditors after accountants Johnston Carmichael quit last year, with no replacement as yet being found, Forbes said there were “questions over integrity, trust, transparency”.

The former finance secretary spoke to BBC Radio 4 in her first broadcast interview since losing the leadership election.

She told the Leading Scotland Where? programme, which airs on Wednesday evening, that “right now, people are watching with astonishment, but they want to see leadership in dealing with it and resolving it”.