HUMZA Yousaf has been forced to deny the SNP is bankrupt after its ruling body agreed to allow forensic accountants to examine its books.

The First Minister said he knew how much the party had in the bank and insisted it was "solvent" despite a fall in membership fees and donations.

He also said it had enough to fight a likely Westminster byelection in Rutherglen & Hamilton West, where the disgraced former SNP MP Margaret Ferrier faces a recall petition.

Parties can spend up to £100,000 on byelections, and in a close contest  such as Rutherglen would be expected to spend close to the limit.

The SNP leader was campaigning in the seat today after chairing a two-hour meeting of the party's ruling National Executive Committee (NEC).

Mr Yousaf's three-week leadership of the party has been dominated by problems inherited from Nicola Sturgeon's regime, including a lack of auditors and a police probe into a possible fundraising fraud.

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National Treasurer Colin Beattie reportedly told the NEC that the party was losing cash because of the recent exit of 30,000 members and unforeseen legal costs related to the police probe.

He said it was “having difficulty in balancing the books due to the reduction in membership and donors” and fighting the byelection would “put the party under pressure", according to the Times.

“We need to find money to keep the party going forward or we’ll keep cutting our tail until there’s nothing left,” Mr Beattie told the meeting.

But affterwards asked about speculation that the SNP was going bust, Mr Yousaf said the notion had not even discussed at the NEC.

He said: "We're not close to bankruptcy. This is something that I've read in some social media circles, but the party is solvent."

Asked if he knew how much the party had in the bank, he said: "We do. We'll make that known and public in the best way that we possibly can." 

He confirmed the SNP had yet to find auditors since the resignation of Johnston Carmrichael last September, and finding new ones was a matter of urgency.

However he added to the confusion over the party's finances by saying it would produce "qualified accounts", meaning they would carry a health warning because of uncertainty over the figures, then later appeared to back away from the phrase.

He said the NEC had agreed to improving the transparency and governance of the party and "external input" on its finances, possibly forensic accountants, experts used to detect fraud and malpractice.

He admitted a byelection in Rutherglen would be "challenging" for the SNP given the party's troubles and Ms Ferrier, who now sits as an independent, facing a 30-day Commons suspension for breaking Covid rules in 2020.

Her majority over Labour in 2019 was 5,230.

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Mr Yousaf said: "I think it will be a challenging byelection for us. I'm not going to pretend otherwise given the context of Margaret's actions plus also the last few weeks have been difficult.

"But we should also go in confident. We've got a good ground operation here. We know where a lot of our support is in the constituency. So we're going to make sure that we go in and hopeful as well as confident."

Asked if the SNP had the funds to fight a byelection, he said: "Yeah, we'll have the money to spend in the election."

He said Labour appeared to be taking vicitory in the seat for granted, but the SNP would not do so, he added.

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: “Voters won’t forget Margaret Ferrier’s reckless rule-breaking, no matter how many SNP campervans are dispatched to Rutherglen.

“As Humza Yousaf desperately scrambles to hold his crumbling party together, Scottish Labour is offering real change.

“The SNP is chaotic and divided – the people of Rutherglen and Hamilton West deserve better.”