Nicola Sturgeon is “certain” she has done nothing wrong after being arrested and questioned by the police.

The former SNP leader was speaking in public for the first time since her arrest this time last week.

She said: “What I will say is reiterate the statement I issued last Sunday, which is I am certain that I have done nothing wrong.

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“I intend to be back in [the Scottish] parliament in the early part of the week. I’ll make myself available for questions then, obviously within the constraints that I am referring to right now.

“For now, I intend to go home, catch up with some family.”

She declined to answer a question from Scotland correspondent Connor Gillies, who asked if “Nicola Sturgeon would suspend Nicola Sturgeon”.

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Ms Sturgeon’s arrest as Police Scotland investigates the spending of £600,000 that was raised for campaigning for independence.

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It is understood there have been complaints the ringfenced cash has been used improperly by being spent elsewhere.

As well as Ms Sturgeon, her husband and former party chief executive Peter Murrell has also been questioned by the police and released without charge.

Similarly, SNP treasurer Colin Beattie was arrested, questioned and released.

Scotland correspondent

For such a dominant public figure, Nicola Sturgeon has been in hiding for a week.

Her whereabouts have been unknown despite her being at the centre of the latest political circus.

The SNP’s opponents have called the new first minister “weak” for failing to suspend her. Humza Yousaf resisted mounting pressure to sideline his predecessor.

Sturgeon signalled her intention to remain in the party she has been part of her entire adult life.

She told the awaiting pack of assembled media outside her house that she was innocent of any wrongdoing and conveyed the impression she is staying put.

Every week brings a new chapter in the SNP soap opera, and the coming days will be no different.

As Humza Yousaf talks about the next steps towards Scottish independence on Monday, Ms Sturgeon is gearing up for a full return to Holyrood.

Scotland’s press will be gathered and prepared for a fresh set of headlines.

Although the former FM is legally constrained in what she can say, I expect she will want to have ‘her say’. Or will she feel she is becoming an unwelcome distraction as a poll now puts the SNP and Labour neck and neck.

There had been calls for Ms Sturgeon to resign the party whip following her detention, or for successor Humza Yousaf to remove her from the Holyrood SNP caucus.

But it was confirmed last week that no such action would be taken against Ms Sturgeon.

Asked whether she has considered stepping back from the SNP, she said: “I’ve done nothing wrong, and that is the only thing I’m going to assert today.”

She added: “I know I’m a public figure, I accept what comes with that, but I’m also a human being that’s entitled to a bit of privacy, and my neighbours are also entitled to a bit of that as well.”

She said no conditions had been placed on her arrest, but did not go into further details about her current situation.

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