Police arrested Colin Beattie, treasurer of the Scottish National Party and member of Edinburgh’s devolved parliament, on Tuesday as part of an investigation into the finances of Scotland’s dominant political force.
Beattie’s arrest overshadowed Scotland’s new First Minister Humza Yousafis trying to reclaim the political initiative from his pro-independence SNP government with a speech promising a “bolder” approach to wealth redistribution and a reset of the party’s troubled relationship with corporations.
The latest blow to the fortunes of the SNP followed the arrest this month of former party chief executive Peter Murrell, husband of former prime minister Nicola Sturgeon. Murrell was released without charge pending further investigation.
Asked by reporters in the Scottish parliament about the latest arrest, Yousaf said he could not comment on a live police investigation but it was “clearly a very serious matter”.
“Of course, I am surprised that one of my colleagues has been arrested,” he added.
The wider police investigation into the funding and finances of the SNP has intensified scrutiny of Sturgeon, who announced his surprise resignation as party leader and prime minister in February.
In a video of a March 2021 meeting of the SNP’s ruling national executive committee published by the Sunday Mail newspaper, Sturgeon told members he had never been in a stronger financial position and warned them against any suggestion to the contrary due to the possible impact on donations.
“There is no reason for people to be worried about party finances,” Sturgeon said at the 2021 meeting. A spokesperson for the former leader did not respond to a request for comment. .
Later in 2021, the police opened an investigation in the SNP after receiving complaints about donations to the party. Donors claimed that money given to the SNP in special fundraising appeals in 2017 and 2019 to fight a future independence referendum was spent by the party on other things.
The underlying complaints were the displeasure of some independence supporters at what they saw as Sturgeon’s failure to hold another referendum on the issue after Scots backed the UK’s retention of 55 % to 45% during a plebiscite in 2014.
The SNP had suggested that more than £600,000 raised through special fundraising appeals was ‘earmarked’ for a referendum campaign, but filings with the Electoral Commission, the independent watchdog, showed that in the end as of 2019 the party had less than £100,000 in Cash and Cash Equivalents.
Police Scotland said they arrested a 71-year-old man “as a suspect in the ongoing investigation into the funding and finances of the Scottish National Party” on Tuesday morning. The national force said on Tuesday evening that the man had been released without charge pending further investigation. He declined to give further details.
A person familiar with the situation confirmed that the man arrested was Beattie, who was first elected SNP treasurer in 2004 and has been a member of the Midlothian North and Musselburgh constituency in the Scottish parliament since 2011.
Beattie, a former international banker, was replaced as SNP treasurer by MP Douglas Chapman in 2020. But Chapman resigned the following year saying he had not ‘received the financial support or information’ he needed and Beattie took over the role.
Fueling lingering doubts over the finances of the SNP, Yousaf admitted last week that the party has been without external auditors since accountancy firm Johnston Carmichael resigned in October last year.
Yousaf has struggled to regain political leadership since narrowly winning the contest to succeed Sturgeon as SNP leader and prime minister last month.
Tuesday he set priorities for the governmentcovering efforts to reduce inequality, increase prosperity and improve public services.
In a signal that he could further adjust Scottish income tax rates, which are already slightly higher for the wealthiest people than in other parts of the UK, Yousaf stressed the need to raise fund to fight poverty.
“We need to be even bolder on taxation and the redistribution of wealth,” he told the Scottish parliament.
But Yousaf also sought to mend relations with business leaders, many of whom were unhappy with what they saw as an unsympathetic Sturgeon government.
Yousaf announced a postponement until March next year of the implementation of a bottle and can recycling program which was supposed to be introduced in August, but which, according to corporate critics, may be impractical.
He also said he told officials to ‘go back to the drawing board’ on a proposal alcohol advertising ban.
Yousaf said the measures were intended to address business concerns about the SNP government’s balance between market regulation and public welfare.
“They called for a reset in the relationship between business and government, and I’m happy to start that reset today,” he added.
The Scotch Whiskey Association, an industry body, welcomed the policy changes and a broader reset, saying they would help the sector promote economic growth, create prosperity and opportunity.
But the Scottish Tories said the delay in the retraining scheme was a “humiliating descent” and that Yousaf was chairing a party “in the midst of a crisis”.
Labour, in particular, sees the woes of the SNP as an opportunity rebuild support north of the English border.
Opposition parties have called on the SNP to suspend the party membership of anyone targeted in the police investigation, but Yousaf said its premise was that people were “innocent until proven guilty”.
However, he added that he would seek to speak with Beattie about his roles as party treasurer and member of the Scottish parliament’s public audit committee following his release by police. “Obviously there are relevant issues,” Yousaf said.