NICOLA Sturgeon has denied that she waited to see the public's reaction before condemning Margaret Ferrier's actions.

Ferrier has been suspended by the SNP, and could be expelled following a party investigation after travelling across the UK a coronavirus diagnosis.

At her coronavirus briefing, the FM was asked why the SNP coreographed Ferrier's statements and waited until 7.05pm - an hour and 15 mins after the statement went out - to suspend the whip.

Sturgeon said she was not waiting to see the public's reaction, adding: "Let me try to unpack that and give you answers to as many bits of it as possible. I tweeted that night and, to be perfectly blunt about it, I tweeted as soon as I was able to get on Twitter. I do have other things that I have to do on a daily basis that means I don't sit on Twitter literally every minute of every day so I had other business that I was attending to.

"There's no great mystery there, that's just the nature of the workload that I have. Ian Blackford spoke to Margaret Ferrier about the removal of the whip and again, as I explained at the time, Ian was travelling from London back to Skye at the time. When I was speaking to Ian over the course of that evening he was going in and out of mobile phone reception because he was travelling through the Highlands so there's no great mystery there.

READ MORE: Margaret Ferrier claims she's been 'hung out to dry' by the SNP​

She went on: "I don't think it would surprise journalists or anybody else that in a situation like this somebody in her position would be assisted with a statement but equally it shouldn't surprise anybody that they are given some time to alert anybody that they want to alert. I know there is always a tendency to look for the intrigue behind these things but sometimes it is just more boring than that and it's just the logisitics and the practicalities that have to be gone through.

"I don't think the SNP could have been clearer about all of this. It isn't difficult for any of us, for many of us Margaret is a friend and someone we have known a long time, but what she did was not defensible because it potentially put people at risk and it was a clear breach of the rules so she had the whip removed. She was suspended from the SNP, there is a process now, political parties have to comply with due process, that process will be gone through. I think she should resign from the House of Commons but I don't have the power to force her to do that."

Ferrier travelled from Glasgow to Westminster while awaiting a Covid-19 test result, then made the return trip when she knew she had the virus.

She told the Scottish Sun on Sunday that she "panicked" and suggested that the virus impaired her judgement.

"A lot of people say Covid makes you do things out of character. You're not thinking straight," she said.

The MP added that she has received support locally in the wake of the incident and has "owned up and apologised profusely".