Humza Yousaf has said that he “sees no reason” to suspend Nicola Sturgeon from the SNP following her arrest on Sunday.
The former first minister was interviewed as a suspect for almost seven hours by detectives investigating allegations of financial misconduct at the Scottish National Party.
After questioning she was released without charge pending further investigation – but a number of figures both within and outside the party have called for her to be suspended.
Ms Sturgeon, who stepped down from her role as party and government leader in April, said in a statement on Sunday night that she was “innocent of any wrongdoing”.
Asked about the calls to suspend his predecessor, SNP leader Mr Yousaf said he would do “what I believe is right to the values of natural justice”.
He noted that other SNP figures, former treasurer Colin Beattie and Ms Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell, who were arrested had not been suspended.
”Nicola Sturgeon, like Colin Beattie, like Peter Murrell, was released without charge. Therefore, I see no reason for their membership to be suspended,” Mr Yousaf said.
Opposition parties have seized on the decision. Scottish Tory chairman Craig Hoy said that the lack of action by Ms Yousaf “shows that he is a weak leader”, while Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar questioned whether the first minister was “strong enough to take action”.
The arrests are part of Operation Branchform, Police Scotland’s investigation into claims that £600,000 in donations for an independence campaign was misspent by Scotland’s governing party.
Calls for action against Ms Sturgeon also came from within the SNP, which she led for eight years.
SNP MSP Michelle Thomson said that in 2015 she herself had been required to “resign the SNP whip although I was never personally under investigation and was certainly not arrested”.
She added: “After careful consideration, I feel the right thing for the former first minister to do is to resign the SNP whip.”
Meanwhile, former leadership candidate Ash Regan said that Ms Sturgeon should “consider voluntarily resigning her SNP membership until this can be cleared up” as a growing number of party figures speak out.
“I think he should consider it,” Ms Regan told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, when asked if Mr Humza should suspend his former boss. “I think that the leadership and Humza need to really think about taking decisive action at the moment,” she added.
It follows SNP MP Angus MacNeil’s call for Ms Sturgeon’s suspension, tweeting: “This soap-opera has gone far enough, Nicola Sturgeon suspended others from the SNP for an awful lot less!”
When asked about previous instances of the SNP suspending elected representatives while investigations took place, Mr Yousaf said he could “only account for decisions” taken by him, and not those of previous leaders.
Speaking to Moray Firth Radio on Monday, Mr Yousaf also spoke about how the arrest had impacted him saying it was “personally quite painful”.
“I’ve spoken about my longstanding friendship with Nicola Sturgeon over many years and I know that it’s been a difficult day for her and a difficult day for our party and for those that know Nicola Sturgeon, as I have done for well over 15 years,” he said.
“What I will say is that I’ve got to separate that out from the role as first minister, and that role as first minister makes it incumbent on me to make sure I don’t intervene or comment on a live police investigation.”
The first minister said, however, he has not spoken to Ms Sturgeon and that when they do speak they do not discuss the police investigation.
