THE SNP’s auditors have resigned amid a police investigation into the party’s finances.

The BBC said accountants Johnston Carmichael, who have worked with the SNP for more than a decade, had taken the decision after a review of its client portfolio.

It leaves the SNP looking for a new firm to audit its accounts for 2022 ahead of them being submitted to the Electoral Commission.

By law, the party has until 7 July to file the paperwork, or face possible sanctions.

The development comes as police wind up a two-day search of the home of Niciola Sturgeon and her husband Peter Murrell, the former SNP chief executive.

He was arrested on Wednesday and later released without charge.

Police Scotland launched an investigation into SNP fundraising in July 2021 after complaints that around £660,000 raised specifically for a second independence referendum may have been spent on other things.

A spokesperson for the SNP said the party was in the process of finding a replacement firm to act as its auditors.

Under electoral law, the SNP must prepare annual financial statements and, because its income and expenditure exceeds £250,000 a year, must have them independently audited.  

Its accounts cover each calendar year, and the last set, covering the year to December 2021, were published last August. 

They showed the party's total income in 2021 was £4,510,460, while total expenditure was £5,262,032, and assets and liabilities were £1,630,454 and £1,055,689 respectively.