Nicola Sturgeon has said she will “get on with life and my job” after her husband was arrested before being released without charge in connection with an investigation into the SNP’s finances.

Speaking outside her home near Glasgow, the former First Minister said in a brief statement that the last few days have been "obviously difficult" after the arrest of Peter Murrell, the party’s former chief executive.

Ms Sturgeon said she understands "the scrutiny that comes on me as a public figure", adding that she intends to "get on with life and my job as you would expect".

The statement was Ms Sturgeon’s first in her own words since police arrested Mr Murrell on Wednesday morning and searched their home.

He has since been released without charge.

Investigators have also searched the SNP’s headquarters in Edinburgh.

'Things I may want to say'

Ms Sturgeon said there will be "full cooperation" with the police investigation, but said she could not comment on it "as much as there are things I may want to say".

"The last few days have been obviously difficult, quite dramatic at times, but I understand that is part of a process," she told reporters.

Ms Sturgeon stood down from her role as First Minister in February and has since been replaced by Humza Yousaf after a ballot of party members.

In her resignation statement, she said it was “right for me, for my party and for the country” to stand down after nine years in post.

'Biggest and most challenging crisis SNP has faced'

Her resignation and the police investigation have thrown her party into turmoil, in what the SNP’s president has described as “the biggest and most challenging crisis we've ever faced”.

The probe into the party’s finances relates to a £600,000 pot that had been earmarked for independence campaigning.

On Friday the SNP’s auditors, Johnston Carmichael, quit as police investigated the whereabouts of the money.

Sources warned Ms Sturgeon’s silence over the investigation was becoming a “festering wound”, and Mr Yousaf admitted the SNP’s governance was “not as it should be”.

On Thursday Mr Yousaf said it had been a “difficult 24 hours” after the news of Mr Murrell’s arrest broke less than two weeks into his tenure as SNP leader.

Ms Sturgeon’s husband, who has accompanied her throughout her political career in Scotland, was taken into custody and questioned by detectives on Wednesday but released without charge.

Their home was taped off by police and officers erected a tent in their garden while conducting their inquiries.