Humza Yousaf: Timing of SNP search warrant not political

The search warrant was granted a week after Mr Yousaf succeeded Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader

Scotland's first minister has said there was nothing unusual in the timing of a warrant to search his predecessor's home.

It emerged on Tuesday that police asked for permission to search Nicola Sturgeon's house and the SNP HQ during the party's leadership contest.

The request was not granted until two weeks later - after the contest ended.

Humza Yousaf said he did not believe the Crown Office took decisions "based on election contests or politics".

There have been suggestions that the delay avoided any damage to his campaign to succeed Ms Sturgeon as first minister and SNP leader.

Mr Yousaf, who was the preferred choice of the SNP hierarchy, narrowly defeated Kate Forbes when the leadership result was announced on 27 March.

• Police waited two weeks for SNP search warrant

• Timeline: The SNP finances controversy

The application for a search warrant had been submitted on 20 March before being granted on 3 April.

Both Mr Yousaf and the Crown Office have denied that the two-week gap was for political reasons.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the first minister was asked whether it was normal for a search warrant to take two weeks to be approved.

He replied: "I suppose that would be a question for the Crown, not questions for government or ministers or the first minister.

"I don't believe there will be any particular reason out of the ordinary that it would take that time."

Mr Yousaf, who has previously served as the justice secretary, added: "We would never dream of interfering, neither in a live police investigation, but certainly not in a search warrant.

"I'm the first minister. I don't sign off on search warrants, I don't get involved in operational decisions for Police Scotland."

The first minister also said said the government would "never dream" of interfering.

SNP investigation timeline

15 February - Nicola Sturgeon announces she is to stand down as first minister and SNP leader

18 March - Ms Sturgeon's husband Peter Murrell quits as SNP chief executive in a row over misleading party membership figures being given to the press

20 March - Police submit a draft warrant to the Crown Office seeking permission to search Ms Sturgeon and Mr Murrell's home and the SNP headquarters in Edinburgh

27 March - Mr Yousaf narrowly defeats Kate Forbes in the SNP leadership contest

3 April - The finalised search warrant is sent to a sheriff and is granted

5 April - Police raid the home of Ms Sturgeon and Mr Murrell and the party HQ and remove several boxes of evidence. Mr Murrell is arrested and later released without charge.

See a full timeline of the two-year police investigation here.

Sources close to the inquiry have denied that there was an undue delay in granting the warrant, which is reported to have included a long list of items the police wanted to seize as part of their ongoing investigation into the SNP's finances.

BBC Scotland understands that prosecutors discussed the draft search warrant with police officers after it was submitted, with a sheriff signing it off on the same day it was finalised.

Opposition parties have highlighted what they believe is a potential conflict of interest in the role of Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC, who heads the Crown Office but is also a Scottish government minister and sits in its cabinet meetings.

Ms Bain did not respond when asked by Sky News on Tuesday whether the search warrant had been deliberately delayed until after Ms Sturgeon left office.

Police spent two days searching the home of Ms Sturgeon and her husband Peter Murrell

A spokesman for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said prosecutors always acted independently of political pressure or interference.

He also said any case involving a politician was carried out without the involvement of the Lord Advocate or her deputy the Solicitor General.

Details of the two-week gap between detectives submitting a request for a search warrant to the Crown Office and it being sent to a sheriff for approval were released by Police Scotland in response to a freedom of information request and were first reported by the Scottish Sun.

Officers raided the Glasgow home of Ms Sturgeon and her husband Peter Murrell on 5 April, two days after the warrant was granted.

The government denies there is a conflict of interest in the role of Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain

Mr Murrell, who had recently quit as the SNP's chief executive, was arrested before later being released without charge while further investigations were carried out.

The SNP's headquarters in Edinburgh was also searched on 5 April and a luxury motorhome that sells for about £110,000 was seized from outside the home of Mr Murrell's mother in Dunfermline.

Colin Beattie, who was the party's treasurer at the time, was arrested on 18 April before also being released without charge while further inquiries were carried out. He subsequently quit as treasurer.

The Scottish Conservatives have called for a Scottish Parliament committee to be created to investigate events around the police inquiry into the SNP's finances.

It said the committee would be similar to the one that examined the handling of complaints against former first minister Alex Salmond.

Conservative chief whip Alexander Burnett said: "The Lord Advocate is hamstrung by her conflict of interest on this matter due to her dual role.

"She is in an impossible position as both the head of the Crown Office and chief legal adviser to the SNP-Green government.

"That only reaffirms the need for an inquiry into these delays when answers are simply not going to be forthcoming from senior Scottish government figures."

Police launched their Operation Branchform investigation almost two years ago after receiving complaints about how a total of £666,953 donated to the SNP by activists was used.

The party pledged to spend the funds on a future independence referendum. Questions were raised after its accounts showed it had just under £97,000 in the bank at the end of 2019, and total net assets of about £272,000.

Last year it emerged Mr Murrell gave a loan of more than £100,000 to the SNP to help it out with a "cash flow" issue after the last election.

The party had repaid about half of the loan by October of that year. It still owes money to its former chief executive, but has not said how much.