By Bill Heaney

Kate Forbes could still become Scotland’s First Minister.

An SNP MP has called for the party’s leadership election to be re-run after claims then-Chief Executive Peter Murrell shortened the race.

Barra man  Angus MacNeil is demanding a new ballot after Nicola Sturgeon’s husband was arrested as part of a fraud probe into party finances just nine days after the party’s ‘preferred candidate’ Humza Yousaf became First Minister.

The Western Isles MP believes the timing of Murrell’s arrest last week severely compromised the legitimacy of the vote, where Yousaf narrowly beat former finance minister Kate Forbes.

MacNeil said: “Peter Murrell appears to have intervened to significantly shorten the election process after the first minister surprised everyone with her resignation on February 15.

“We then had the issue of the media being misled on membership numbers, which led to communications director Murray Foote’s and Murrell’s resignation.

“After this, party HQ rejected a reasonable proposal to allow members to change their vote before the ballot closed. Murrell has now been arrested as part of a fraud investigation into SNP finances shortly after the result.

“There are clearly questions to answer here. If it is the case that Peter’s arrest has been delayed to allow the first minister to resign and the vote to take place, then that could have had a material impact on the election result. It seems unlikely that the continuity candidate would have cut it if all of this had been know beforehand.”

Just over 72,000 SNP members were able to vote on who would become Scotland’s next First Minister last month. Sources said Murrell, who quit as chief executive, personally intervened to shorten the leadership race to just a few weeks in the wake of Sturgeon’s resignation.

The timetable was announced after a meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC). A source said: “A paper was presented to the NEC at the meeting in the week after Nicola’s resignation, recommending the shortened timetable. That was 100 per cent being driven by Peter, even if the paper was in the national secretary’s name. He was in complete control of the election process.”

Had the expected timescale of months been implemented, Murrell would have been arrested in the middle of the campaign rather than after the outcome was decided. According to the SNP’s constitution, nominations for the leadership race should have taken at least 77 days.

But under the new plan it took just eight days. Ballots should have been sent out 35 days after nominations closed but instead were sent out after only 17 days. In the original party constitution, members should have had 21 days to cast their votes but instead had 14 days.