A former Scottish Government minister said Peter Murrell's arrest was 'probably likely' to have been a factor in Nicola Sturgeon's resignation as First Minister.
Alex Neil said it is “hard to believe” Sturgeon would not have considered a potential arrest when she decided to resign in February.
Former SNP chief executive and Sturgeon's husband Murrell was arrested on Wednesday morning after police raided their home.
But the 58-year-old was released after being questioned for nearly 12 hours.
Neil told BBC Radio 4: "Well, Nicola did resign very suddenly. Everybody and their granny knew about this investigation.
“There were very strong rumours for the last couple of months that some kind of arrest was possibly imminent, so it’s hard to believe that it wasn’t a factor in Nicola’s consideration.
“Given that a large number of people had been interviewed, including staff at SNP headquarters, it’s hard to believe Nicola wasn’t aware that the enquiry was coming to a head to some extent.
"If that was the case, then you could understand why she would not want to be First Minister when this happened.
"I can't say one way or the other... but I think most people would conclude that it might well have been, was probably likely to have been a factor in her decision to resign at the time that she did.”
Asked if it was a factor in Humza Yousaf’s election as First Minister, Neil said: “The strange thing is that, when the National Executive Committee met to decide the timetable of the leadership election, they did not follow the rules laid down by the party previously about how long a leadership election should last.
"It was all squeezed into a few weeks and that was, I think, intended to suit Humza. The whole party establishment moved heaven and earth to make sure Humza won.
"So one has one's suspicions about why that happened.
He added: "Humza stood as the continuity candidate. Had this all happened, including the row about the party membership, the refusal to release the details of the party membership.
"If all of that had happened prior to the ballot opening, I’m absolutely sure that the continuity candidate would have found it much more difficult to win.”
Sturgeon's spokesperson said: “Nicola Sturgeon had no prior knowledge of Police Scotland’s action or intentions. Ms Sturgeon will fully co-operate with Police Scotland if required, however at this time no such request has been made."
Neil said Yousaf has to change the party or he risks facing an "electoral disaster".
He said: "You only need to look at the polls. I'm not saying this is entirely due to his election but we're now down at 36 per cent in terms of the forecast for our share of the vote at the Westminster election next year, which would be an electoral disaster."
"Humza should do three things. First of all, he should bring Kate Forbes and members of her team into the cabinet to reunite the party, that is now more essential than ever.
"Secondly, he needs to change direction on policy on a whole range of issues, because the big issues that matter like education and health require urgent action across a range of measures.
"And thirdly he needs to completely overhaul party headquarters. All of these things are absolutely essential to stop the rot."
