Nicola Sturgeon says she will 'continue to live and work' after husband's arrest

Nicola Sturgeon speaks to reporters on Saturday. Photo: Jane Barlow/PA

She said there would be «full cooperation» with the police investigation, but added that she could not comment on it, «although there are things I might want to say.»

< p>“The last few days have been clearly difficult, quite dramatic at times, but I understand this is part of the process,” she told reporters.

Ms Sturgeon stepped down as first minister in February, and has since she was replaced by Humza Yousaf after a vote by SNP members.

In her resignation letter, she said that «it was right for me, for my party and for the country to step down after nine years in office.»< /p>

Her resignation and the police investigation left the SNP in turmoil, with the SNP president calling it «the biggest and most complex crisis we've ever faced.»

The investigation into the party's finances involves a £600,000 bank that was earmarked for the independence campaign. On Friday, Johnston Carmichael, the SNP's auditors, resigned as police investigated the whereabouts of the money.

Sources warned that Ms Sturgeon's silence on the investigation was becoming a «festering wound» and Mr Yousaf acknowledged that the SNP management was «not what it should be.»

On Thursday, he said it had been a «difficult 24 hours» after news of Mr. Murrell's arrest broke less than two weeks after his tenure as leader of the SNP.