Former Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf says he thought Nicola Sturgeon looked “quite a broken women” during a television interview in the wake of her ex-husband Peter Murrell admitting to embezzling more than £400,000 from the SNP.
Yousaf said he was “gobsmacked” when SNP offices were raided by police in 2023, shortly after he had succeeded Ms Sturgeon as party leader.
In an interview with the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, Sturgeon said her ex-husband has never explained to her why he took party funds as she spoke of the “trauma” she has gone through.
Sturgeon also said she feels like she is “serving a sentence for a crime I did not commit” after Murrell pleaded guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh last week to embezzling the sum from the SNP between 2010 and 2022.
Speaking on BBC Newsnight, Mr Yousaf described his reaction to the police raids as “utterly gobsmacked” and “livid”.
He added: “I think it was day one, maybe day two (of his leadership), I get a call at just before eight in the morning I think it was, to say SNP HQ has been raided by the police and, of course, you can imagine my reaction.
“By the way, we hear also that Peter and Nicola’s house has also been raided. And, of course, the team cooperates fully and lets the police in, but we’re not allowed in while the police are doing their search.”
Asked whether he believed Ms Sturgeon’s version of events that she was unaware of her then-husband’s actions, Mr Yousaf described her as “a person of great integrity”.
He said: “Look, I have a bias. I know Nicola, spent a lot of time with Nicola over the years, was appointed to various government roles by Nicola.
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“I believe Nicola because I know the person and I believe her to be a person of great integrity.
“In that Laura Kuenssberg interview, I thought I saw quite a broken woman. I thought I saw somebody who was really suffering as a result of what’s happened in a huge betrayal.
“I certainly am in that percentage that believe her, but I can understand people’s scepticism. I mean, I’m not surprised by it.”