Nicola Sturgeon's claims that she did not stand down because of a police investigation into her husband are "absurd", Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross told GB News.
The Moray MP warned that the ongoing high profile police investigation into the SNP's finances was "deeply damaging" for Scotland.
Officers are investigating £600,000 in missing donations to the party.
Earlier this week Sturgeon's husband and the former chief executive of the largest political party north of the border, Peter Murrell, was quizzed by police under caution for 12 hours.
Nicola Sturgeon's claims have been described as 'absurd'PAThe former SNP leader has always insisted that the investigation into her husband's management of party funds had little to do with shock announcement that she was stepping down from the top job in February.
Accusing the 52-year-old of not being joints with voters, Ross told GB News: "For her to somehow suggest and continue to suggest it had nothing to do with this ongoing inquiry I think is frankly absurd.
"We’ve now seen the incredible sight of someone who has just been First Minister inside a house when the police came to arrest her husband.
"Now, obviously, that's an ongoing live police inquiry and I can't go much further into it but we have all seen the house being taped off."
Police sealed off Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell's house
PAMurrell was released without charge on Wednesday evening with the probe into the SNP's finances still ongoing.
Police Scotland first launched "Operation Branchform" into fundraising fraud in July 2021.
As well as carrying out a search of Sturgeon and Murrell's home, officers also raided the party's headquarters and yesterday were claimed to have seized a £110,000 motorhome from the house of Murrell's elderly mother.
The Scottish Conservative leader also hit out the SNP’s record ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Hollywood parliament.
He said: "I think devolution has been a good thing in terms of bringing powers closer to the people of Scotland.
"It's part of the reason I represent in the Scottish Parliament. But for many remote and rural areas Holyrood now seems as distant as Westminster ever was.
"So I want to see a Scottish Parliament actually deliver for people and representatives of all of Scotland and at the moment that's not happening with the centralising SNP government.
"It didn't happen under Nicola Sturgeon and because we've got that continuity come to use if that's not happening."
