Nicola Sturgeon Slams "Ridiculous" Candidate Selection Claims
It is ridiculous'' to suggest the SNP would allow a candidate to be put forward for election knowing there wereserious problems'' over their integrity, the First Minister has said.
Nicola Sturgeon was challenged on the party's knowledge of Edinburgh West MP Michelle Thomson's business dealings after it emerged she is to help police with their inquiries into property deals conducted five years ago.
Ms Thomson, who was elected back in May, has denied any wrongdoing and has withdrawn herself from the party whip at Westminster.
Ms Sturgeon has said the SNP did not know about MP's business dealings until reports began to emerge in the newspapers.
Speaking at First Minister's Questions, she said: I said yesterday, I have said again today: the SNP had no prior knowledge of these issues.
Of course, as I also have already said, Michelle Thomson denies any wrongdoing, therefore presumably she would maintain that there was nothing for her to have brought to the attention of the SNP.
Our vetting procedures as a party are robust but we keep them under review, as I would hope every political party does.
While we make all reasonable checks and ask all reasonable questions, by definition it is not reasonable to expect that matters of which we have no knowledge can be investigated.
But what is also ridiculous to suggest of any political party is that any party would knowingly allow a candidate to go forward for selection knowing there were serious problems about the integrity of that individual candidate.
If there are matters that are proven to have been done wrong, then these will be serious issues that the SNP will respond to.''
Ms Sturgeon said Ms Thomson was entitled to a presumption of innocence and warned against the temptation in the hurly-burly of politics to seek to pre-judge issues''.
Labour's Kezia Dugdale accused the SNP leader of running away'' from Ms Thomson, who was the SNP's Westminster spokeswoman for business, innovation and skills.
This is a First Minister who claims that nobody in the SNP knew anything about that, and I will take her word for that,'' she said.
But now she does know. She knows that an elected representative in her party acted in a way that is unacceptable.
This is someone that the SNP did know.
The First Minister has spent two days running away from Michelle Thomson as fast as she can, but isn't it the case that for the last two years Michelle Thomson has been right at the heart of everything the SNP stand for?''