Nicola Sturgeon says SNP crisis unexpected, beyond her ‘worst nightmares’, but not her reason for resigning – UK politics live | Politics

The Labour debate on water has ended, and MPs voted by 290 to 188 – a majority of 102 – for the government amendment blocking the opposition’s plan for to allow time for its water quality bill to be debated next month.

This is what Nicola Sturgeon, the former Scottish first minister, said to journalists at Holyrood about being frustrated at not being able to give her side of the story.

Look, one of the frustrating things just now – and I’m not complaining about this, I understand the process that is under way – but one of the frustrating aspects of that is that I’m not able to give my version of what is going on just now.

Hopefully the time will come when I can do that. So I appreciate the concern, I appreciate the frustration, but that is the nature of the process that is under way right now.

And this is what she said about the recent SNP scandal being unexpected, and not a factor in her decision to resign. She was asked if she would apologise to Humza Yousaf, her successor, for the state in which she left their party. She replied:

I think Humza is doing, in very, very difficult circumstances, an outstanding job. I have become ever more convinced – and I was already convinced of this – that he’s going to be a very fine first minister.

I understand the view that some people might have that I knew this was all about to unfold and that’s why I walked away. Nothing could be further from the truth. I could not have anticipated in my worst nightmares what would have unfolded over the past few weeks.

I believe the SNP, notwithstanding the real difficulties that surround the party just now, is in good shape and I think Humza will take it to even better places.

Her husband, Peter Murrell, who had been the SNP’s chief executive when she was first minister, was arrested earlier this month in connection with the policy inquiry into SNP finances. He was released without charge.

Nicola Sturgeon, the former Scottish first minister, has been speaking to reporters at Holyrood. She told them that it was “frustrating” not being able to give her side of the story, in relation to the SNP finance crisis.

As Peter MacMahon from ITV Border reports, she also said she had not been questioned by the police, and that this issue was not a factor in her decision to stand down.

Ministers have confirmed that they will not make misogyny a hate crime.

Sarah Dines, the safeguarding minister, made the announcement in response to a report from the law commission.

When the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill was going through parliament the government came under pressure to include misogyny as a hate crime, and it agreed, as part of the 2022 Act that was passed, to consider the issue and report back within a year.

In a statement issued to fulfil that obligation, Dines said:

The government is particularly conscious of the potential difficulties arising to prosecuting serious crimes which disproportionately affect women and girls – such as sexual offences and domestic abuse – were sex or gender to be added to the hate crime framework. As the Law Commission highlights, this arises as it would be necessary to prove in some way that an offender demonstrated or was motivated by hostility in the context of an individual offence. This might be through evidence of a specific misogynistic motivation or behaviour as it concerns crimes against women, such as the use of a gendered slur during the offence. However, this could be difficult to determine given the nature of violence against women and girls (VAWG) crimes. The Law Commission concludes: “It might be practically difficult to prove a sex or gender-based aggravation in the context of VAWG crimes that usually take place in private, for example sexual offences or domestic abuse.”

Labour argued for misogyny to be made a hate crime when the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill was going though parliament and it included the plan in a green paper it published in 2021.

According to a party source, Labour is still committed to the idea, although the recent document published by Keir Starmer explaining his anti-crime “mission” did not specifically mention this. It did, though, say Labour was committed to halving the level of violence against women and girls within a decade.

The Scottish Conservatives have also put out a statement describing Colin Beattie’s motorhome comment as a “bombshell revelation”. This is from Craig Hoy, the Scottish Tory chair.

This causal admission from Colin Beattie beggars belief. He’s effectively saying ‘Motorhome? What motorhome?’

He has serious questions to answer over this bombshell revelation. How on earth could someone who was treasurer, when the accounts featuring this six-figure purchase were signed off, now claim he was never aware of it?

The murkiness surrounding the scandal-ridden SNP increases by the day. Claims like this make a complete mockery of Keith Brown’s remarks at the weekend that the SNP was one of the most transparent parties in the UK.

Scottish Labour has described Colin Beattie’s campervan admission (see 2.53pm) as a “bombshell revelation”. Jackie Baillie, the party’s deputy leader, said:

This is yet another bombshell revelation that lays bare the chaos at the heart of the SNP.

That the treasurer of the party did not know that over £100,000 had been spent on a motorhome is mind-boggling.

This is a party in meltdown with nothing to offer Scots. It’s time for a clean break with Scottish Labour.

Colin Beattie told journalists today that he did not know anything about a campervan paid for by the SNP when he was treasurer. He made the comment when he spoke to reporters for the first time since his arrest last week. (See 1.21pm.)

As PA Media reports, the Niesmann + Bischoff vehicle, which can sell for as much as £110,000, was seized by police from the home of the mother of Nicola Sturgeon’s husband, Peter Murrell, at the same time he was in custody and the home he shares with the former first minister was being searched by police.

Murrell was released without charge later that day “pending further investigation”.

Asked by journalists in Holyrood if he knew about the vehicle purchase, Beattie said: “No, I didn’t know about it.”

One area where Labour’s water quality bill goes beyond what the government is doing relates to automatic fines. Labour says it would impose “automatic fines for sewage dumping”.

Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, told MPs that, although this plan was well intentioned, “it strongly risks effectively making enforcement weaker, and potentially letting the most serious polluters off the hook”.

She explained that she had been advised by officials that this plan could actually limit liability. She suggested that if fines were automatic, there might be a problem when a pollution incident turned out to be more serious than originally thought. These incidents needed to be properly investigated, she said, so that culpability could be established.

She concluded her speech:

In summary, Labour want monitoring. We’ve already delivered it. Labour want fines. We’ve delivered record fines. Labour want large penalties. We’re making them unlimited. Labour say they want strong restrictions. But they would, in effect, weaken them. Labour want a plan. We’ve already published one. Ours is fully costed and credible. Labour says their plan won’t impact householders. But they can’t say how much it would cost.

It was a Labour government that was taken to court by the European Union for allowing discharge of sewage. And in Wales, where Labour are actually in government, they are a discharging sewage almost twice as often as in England.

That’s not a plan. It’s an uncosted political game, and a recipe for tripling the average for water bill.

This is what Labour says its bill would do. It says:

Labour’s water quality (sewage discharge) bill is the party’s plan to end the Tory sewage scandal by 2030. It seeks to legally underpin four crucial reduction measures:

Setting a legal requirement for the monitoring of all sewage outlets and penalties for failures in adhering to monitoring requirements.

Imposing automatic fines for sewage dumping.

Implementing a legally binding target to reduce sewage dumping events.

And a requirement for the secretary of state to publish a strategy for the reduction of sewage discharges and regular economic impact assessments.

Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, is now responding to Labour in the debate on sewage discharges.

She says people are “rightly disgusted” about excessive sewage into rivers. And “so is this government”, she says.

She claims the government has already taken more action on this issue than any previous administration. And she claims that the proposed Labour legislation is “pointless” because much of it is being implemented anyway.

The government has tabled an amendment to the Labour motion that would strike out almost all of it, and leave a motion just saying “that this house calls on the government to set a target for the reduction of sewage discharges”. Earlier today she issued a written statement saying the government would be making sewage reduction targets legally binding. (See 12.14pm.)

The SNP is “not going bust”, its former treasurer has said.

Speaking to journalists for the first time since he was arrested, and then released without charge, in connection with an inquiry into the party’s finances, Colin Beattie said: “The SNP is in the black.”

Asked if the party was “not going bust”, Beattie said: “We’re a going concern, definitely.”

And asked why the party was finding it hard appointing new auditors, after the previous ones quit in October, he replied: “Partly, that’s a market situation.”

The SNP group at Westminster is at risk of losing the £1.2m it receives annually in so-called Short money – taxpayer funding for opposition parties – if the party cannot submit audited accounts by 31 May.