ANOTHER week, another arrest. As the SNP’s political torment continues Humza Yousaf, who has become master of the understatement, must be getting quite used to being dough-nutted by the feral beasts of the Press every time he enters a public space.

The question now on everyone’s lips, including his, is: will Nicola Sturgeon be the next senior SNP figure to have their collar felt by HM constabulary?

After her husband Peter Murrell, the party’s ex-Chief Executive, was arrested on April 5 and questioned by police investigating the organisation’s finances, it was Colin Beattie, the party Treasurer’s turn on Tuesday to undergo the same unnerving process and subsequently resigned his position. Both were released without charge pending further inquiries.

Yesterday, the happy task of being the SNP’s new book-keeper was taken on by Cumbernauld MP Stuart McDonald, who is doubtless hoping there are no new surprises in store.

Another two weeks takes us to May 2, the week of England’s local elections when Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives face a drubbing. But if the former FM were arrested around that date and questioned under caution like her colleagues, then the political focus would be mainly on matters north of the border rather than south of it; no doubt much to the relief of the embattled PM, who this week lost his third Cabinet minister in six months. Some going.

Ms Sturgeon must find it intensely frustrating not only being unable to speak out as the maelstrom churns around her but also at witnessing her party become a political punch-bag.

Yet, given she was the third registered officer alongside Messrs Murrell and Beattie on the party’s accounts for the 2021/22 financial year, and given, we’re told, she has yet to be questioned by the police, it seems only a matter of time before officers politely knock on her Uddingston door.

'On the list'

SCOTTISH Tory MSP Murdo Fraser suggested there was a “broad expectation…it's only a matter of time before Nicola Sturgeon herself is questioned by the police, if not arrested” while one SNP insider noted: “It’s obvious there’s a list. And Nicola’s name is on it.”

A colleague bluntly described the party’s mood, telling The Guardian: “Some people are still in shock, some are in denial, some are saying: ‘What the f**k!’”

In the Commons, Leader Penny Mordaunt indulged in her favourite pastime, poking fun at those insufferable Nationalists, telling MPs: “For some time now, BBC Politics Scotland has resembled an episode of Taggart.” Conservative chuckles all round.

Equally, her colleague Douglas Ross couldn’t resist trying to keep the political pressure on Mr Yousaf by raising “legitimate and urgent” questions over the SNP’s finances, including about the now-famous £100,000 luxury camper-van bought by the SNP, but never apparently used, and the spending of money raised in its online independence referendum appeals.

Nationalist HQ took the Scottish Tory chief to task, saying he knew full well the FM couldn’t comment on such matters as they were part of a live inquiry and scolded him for “very obviously playing politics with a police investigation”.

Marginal seats

Of late, the Scottish Conservative leader hasn’t covered himself in glory after his call for Tory supporters to vote Labour in marginal Scottish seats at the General Election to help oust Nationalist MPs.

After being upbraided by Conservative HQ in London, the Scottish party leader rowed back, insisting all Tory supporters should vote for their local Tory candidate. But the damage had been done.

And yet the Conservative own goals didn’t end there. The UK Government’s onetime chief Brexit negotiator, Lord Frost, suggested devolution was doing so badly in Scotland, it should be “rolled back”.

Given all the constitutional hoo-ha over the UK Government’s veto of Holyrood’s gender reform bill, one would have thought the Tory peer might have thought better than handing a large stick with which the Nationalists could beat Whitehall.

Mr Yousaf duly declared how he would “always defend our democracy” while Scottish Tories were aghast, denouncing their colleague’s outburst as “nonsense” and “baloney”.

It had clearly escaped Lord Frost’s memory that if it were not for devolution, following the total wipe-out of the Conservatives north of the border at the 1997 General Election, then the Tory political presence in Scotland might have taken a generation or more to revive.

The recent ill-considered interventions might be borne out of worry and frustration that the blue rosettes are not doing well north of the border and see themselves being superseded as the Unionist champion by Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.

Polling this week showed support for the SNP at Holyrood had slumped to its lowest level since the 2014 referendum following Ms Sturgeon’s resignation and the police probe into its party finances. The Nationalists’ constituency vote share dropped five points since March to 38%; in December it was 50%.

Tories fall behind

Meantime, Labour’s constituency vote share was 30%, its highest since the 2014 vote, while the Tories were way back on just 16%.

In terms of Westminster voting intentions, there was less movement with the SNP on 37%, down two points, Labour on 28%, down one, while the Tories had 17%, up one.

The snapshot also suggested Scottish voters viewed Mr Yousaf as weak, incompetent and out-of-touch, believing he was doing a bad job by a margin of 44% to 19; a net approval rating of -25.

While the fall in numbers for the SNP is bad, it is not the “meltdown” some of its opponents claim. Indeed before Sir Keir opens a can of his favourite beer, he should take note that the same poll showed his net rating fell from +3 in March to -19 this month, a drop of 22 points.

This afternoon, the UK Government is due to test its “emergency alert system” on our mobile phones, the noise of which might startle some unprepared souls but Nationalist politicians won’t flinch as they’re getting quite used to hearing an alarm bell ringing.

After this week, they might not have too long to wait for the next one to go off.