THE SNP’s latest troubles have come not as single spies but as a battalion of beefy coppers carting off boxes of papers and hard drives.

The scene at Nicola Sturgeon’s house in Uddingston, south-east Glasgow, with its large blue tent, spades and police tape, more closely resembles a scene from Line of Duty than the quiet suburban home of Scotland’s pre-eminent stateswoman. Sturgeon’s husband, the former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, was arrested and taken in for questioning at 7.45am yesterday morning (5 April) in relation to an investigation into SNP finances and funding. After hours of questioning, he was released from custody without charge at 6.57pm. Police Scotland say a report will be sent to the Crown Office and the Procurator Fiscal Service.

Officers also spent hours at the SNP’s Edinburgh HQ, from where more boxes were removed. The scale and visual drama of the activity, and the fact that it centred on the party that has governed Scotland for the past 16 years, were genuinely shocking. (Sturgeon has pulled out of an event at the Edinburgh Science Festival.)

Those looking for renewal and a burst of governing energy from their new leader are still waiting. Instead, doubts about whether Yousaf is up to the job remain and will only grow until and unless they are addressed. Today’s newspapers, with wall-to-wall coverage of the raid on his predecessor’s home, only add to the sense that the SNP is in deep trouble and possibly unravelling. Never has continuity looked like a worse idea.

Want to see more SNP fails? – Health Matters