First Minister Nicola Sturgeon came under fire yesterday for “running away” from the scandal surrounding an SNP MP’s alleged business dealings.
Michelle Thomson resigned as the SNP’s party whip after it emerged her business dealings with a fallen solicitor were being investigated by police.
The Edinburgh West MP has denied any wrongdoing, but is helping police with their inquiries into the property deals conducted five years ago.
Ms Sturgeon has insisted the SNP did not know about Ms Thomson’s business dealings until reports began to emerge in the newspapers.
But yesterday Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale accused the first minister of “running away” from the storm surrounding the woman who has been “right at the heart” of the SNP apparatus.
“This is a first minister who claims that nobody in the SNP knew anything about that, and I will take her word for that,” she said.
“But now she does know. She knows that an elected representative in her party acted in a way that is unacceptable.
“The first minister has spent two days running away from Michelle Thomson as fast as she can, but isn’t it the case that for the last two years Michelle Thomson has been right at the heart of everything the SNP stand for?”
Ms Sturgeon meanwhile said Ms Thomson was entitled to a presumption of innocence and warned against the temptation “in the hurly-burly of politics to seek to pre-judge issues”.
Speaking at First Minister’s Questions, Ms Sturgeon said: “Of course, as I also have already said, Michelle Thomson denies any wrongdoing, therefore presumably she would maintain that there was nothing for her to have brought to the attention of the SNP.
“While we make all reasonable checks and ask all reasonable questions, by definition it is not reasonable to expect that matters of which we have no knowledge can be investigated.
“But what is also ridiculous to suggest of any political party is that any party would knowingly allow a candidate to go forward for selection knowing there were serious problems about the integrity of that individual candidate.
“If there are matters that are proven to have been done wrong, then these will be serious issues that the SNP will respond to.”
Meanwhile, the Law Society of Scotland has confirmed they may look more deeply into the connection between a member of its staff and Ms Thomson linked to the deals.
Sheila Kirkwood was secretary to the society’s guarantee fund sub-committee that scrutinised the activities of Christopher Hales, a lawyer who was struck off following investigations into 13 property deals involving Ms Thomson in 2010 and 2011.
Ms Kirkwood has been linked to the Lawyers for Yes independence campaign group.