Nicola Sturgeon has been snapped returning home from a driving lesson as she continues to adjust to life after stepping down as First Minister.
The 52-year-old, who remains MSP for the Glasgow Southside seat after quitting the top job in February, was snapped getting out of a blue Toyota Yaris with L-plates run by the Caledonian Learner Driver Training motoring school on Monday. She stopped the car outside her home in Glasgow, where police were pictured last week as part of an ongoing inquiry into SNP finances.
Her husband, former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, 58, was quizzed for 12 hours as part of the investigation. He was later released without charge pending further investigation, after officers carried out searches of the home he shares with Ms Sturgeon as well as SNP headquarters in Edinburgh.
Ms Sturgeon has not been questioned by police. But two days ago the veteran politician told reporters that she would give them her "full cooperation" as part of an ongoing probe into the party's use of donations.
The ex-FM has never held a driving licence, instead relying on public transport, government chauffeurs and Mr Murrell to get around. But she revealed in a recent BBC podcast series that she was finally taking lessons after handing the reins of the Scottish Government to Humza Yousaf last month.
Friend Nicky Bell told the Nicola Sturgeon podcast: "Anyone who knows Nicola knows she has been signalling for a wee while she was likely to go. And I think the big thing was she said she was taking driving lessons.
"You don't need driving lessons if you are going to be chauffeur driven about as the First Minister. She said to me many years ago she didn't want to sit her driving test in case she failed, because up until that point in her life she had never failed an exam."
Ms Sturgeon told the podcast the driving lessons are "in the early stages". She said that getting behind the wheel is about "achieving a bit of personal freedom that I have chosen not to have to the same extent" while at the peak of her political career.
However, her life after the top job in Scottish politics has been overshadowed by the ongoing police probe into SNP accounts. The inquiry was sparked by complaints about the SNP’s handling of more than £600,000 in donations raised in the name of a second independence referendum campaign.
She told a press pack outside her home on Saturday: "There is obviously nothing I can say about the ongoing investigation. As much as there are things I may want to say, I’m not able to do so, other than to say that, as has been the case, there will continue to be full cooperation.
“The last few days have been obviously difficult, quite dramatic at times, but I understand that is part of a process. I’m also entitled to a little bit of privacy in my own home, and my neighbours, I think, are also entitled to a wee bit of privacy as well."
Asked whether Mr Murrell was back home, she added: "Peter’s at home as you would expect it to be. Peter’s not able to say anything.
“Again, that’s not necessarily a matter of choice. That’s just the nature of this.”
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