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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
National
James Walker

SNP denies holding emergency meeting after treasurer Colin Beattie arrested

THE SNP has denied holding an emergency meeting following the arrest of its treasurer Colin Beattie amid a probe into the SNP's funding and finances.

Sky News initially reported Tuesday afternoon that the party held an emergency meeting this afternoon in response to the police action.

But multiple sources have described the meeting as a "normal Tuesday SNP MSP group meeting", rather than an emergency one.

A senior SNP Holyrood source said: "There is a weekly meeting with the SNP group in Holyrood every Tuesday at 12.45pm.

"The First Minister was billed to speak at that from Thursday – long before today's events.

"So I don't know what secret emergency, or emergency meeting has been called or where [Sky News] got the quotes from that it's an emergency meeting.

"You wouldn't expect discussion of a live investigation to take place.

"It was an opportunity for the group to raise questions of the First Minister and, as every other week, an opportunity for the group to discuss what's going on in parliament that week – political business and all the rest of it."

Beattie, an SNP MSP and party treasurer, was arrested Tuesday morning as a suspect in the ongoing investigation into party finances.

He is being questioned by Police Scotland detectives.

It comes after Nicola Sturgeon’s husband and former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell was arrested and released without charge at the beginning of April.

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