Nicola Sturgeon pulls out of first public event since husband’s arrest

NICOLA Sturgeon pulled out of her first public event since her husband’s arrest — as police still scoured their home.

The former First Minister ducked a climate change talk in Edinburgh.

Earlier tonight questions were mounting over whether she was told police probing the party’s finances were about to swoop.

Critics also wanted to know if officers had been asked to wait until after she stood down last week.

But her replacement, Humza Yousaf, dismissed claims the police were in cahoots with the party as a “conspiracy theory”.

Ms Sturgeon had been due to talk with Mexican politician Patricia Espinosa, the former chair of the UN framework convention on climate change, at the Edinburgh Science festival.

But her spokesperson said she wanted to “keep the focus of the event”.

Meanwhile a former SNP minister branded Mr Yousaf’s appointment a “total stitch-up”.

Alex Neil said: “He was the continuity candidate.

“Had all this happened before members were able to vote, I am certain he would not have won.”

Ms Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell has been released without charge pending further investigation.