Humza Yousaf says he found out the SNP owns the motorhome seized from Peter Murrell’s mother’s Fife home after he became first minister.
Police removed the luxury vehicle from 92-year-old Margaret Murrell’s home in Dunfermline last week on the same day her son, the party’s former chief executive, was arrested.
Asked by Sky News when he found out about the campervan, Mr Yousaf said: “Shortly after I became leader of the party.”
SNP sources claim the campervan was bought to be used as an election battle bus ahead of the 2021 Holyrood vote while pandemic restrictions remained in place.
They said that as the threat of Covid curbs were eased this plan was ditched.
But opposition parties said this explanation for the motorhome’s purchase was “less than convincing”.
Mr Yousaf added: “The police, of course, give us a warrant for items they’re looking to take in their possession.
“I can’t go into the detail of that, but of course the police have done the responsible thing.
“I have seen the warrant in terms of the items that they’ve confiscated including the motorhome.”
NEW: Humza Yousaf tells me he was unaware the SNP owned £100k motorhome until he became party leader. The vehicle was seized by police at a home connected to Peter Murrell.
❓Was Sturgeon wrong not to reveal auditor issues?
“Would of been helpful to know beforehand”.@SkyNews pic.twitter.com/IChI4Qmo79
— Connor Gillies (@ConnorGillies) April 13, 2023
Mr Yousaf said it would have been “helpful” to know about difficulties surrounding the party’s finances before he became leader.
Earlier this week it emerged the auditing firm doing the SNP’s accounts quit at least six months ago and has not been replaced.
The first minister previously said he was also not aware of this when he took on the top job.
He said to Sky News: “I, of course, only knew about the auditors resigning when I became party leader.
“One of my first instructions to the party has been to make sure we get replacement auditors.”
‘Very reasonable question’
Asked whether it was “wrong” for Ms Sturgeon not to tell him, he said: “I think people have got a very reasonable question to ask around transparency.
“That’s why I’ve committed to a review of governance and transparency with external input.
“Frankly, it would have been helpful to have known beforehand.”
But he added it was not necessarily the previous leadership team’s responsibility to warn candidates running to become SNP boss that the auditors had resigned.
The motorhome controversy comes amid a turbulent first two weeks as first minister for Mr Yousaf.
On Wednesday night his sister Faiza Yousaf revealed she quit Twitter over social media abuse directed at the former justice, health and transport minister.
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