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NICOLA Sturgeon has given her support to the latest SNP MP to become the focus of a fraud investigation.

The Record revealed yesterday that Dundee West MP Chris Law was detained by police on Wednesday over alleged financial irregularities connected to an independence campaign he set up.

He was freed without charge pending further inquiries.

Unlike the two MPs suspended by the SNP, Natalie McGarry and Michelle Thomson, Law has not resigned the party whip.

And Sturgeon yesterday backed his decision. She said: “Michelle and Natalie took the decision to resign the whip.

“Chris’s position is that he’s of the view, and he’s confident of the view, that when he provides further information to the police that he’s agreed to do, he will resolve the matter.

“He hasn’t been charged with any offence and he is confident he will be able to resolve this matter and hopefully do so quickly.

“Now we have to let that process take its course.”

She said McGarry faced “serious criminal charges” and it would be inappropriate for her to say any more.

The Record traced Law yesterday to a Perthshire house believed to belong to a friend, but he refused to come out.

The police investigation is focused on Law’s Spirit of Independence referendum campaign, where he toured Scotland in an old fire engine.

He was detained hours after McGarry was charged with embezzlement and breach of trust. She is alleged to have stolen from the Women for Independence group.

A prosecution could mean a by-election in her Glasgow East seat, a key Labour target.

Thomson, who won Edinburgh West in the 2015 SNP landslide, resigned the whip after police began an investigation into property dealings carried out for her by a lawyer later struck off.

Police say lawyer Christopher Hales, rather than Thomson, is the focus of the inquiry. She has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Tory Murdo Fraser attempted a joke about the Law case at First Minister’s Questions. He asked: “Given the number of the First Minister’s Westminster colleagues now helping the police with their enquiries, is the First Minister confident Police Scotland have the resources to deal with this upsurge in their workload?”

Sturgeon bluntly replied that police funding was protected.