Scottish public must be told why Peter Murrell's embezzlement hearing was held after election – Jackie Baillie
There are still many questions for the SNP, Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney to answer over Peter Murrell’s embezzlement of party funds
This week, Peter Murrell, the former SNP chief executive, admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from his own party over 12 years. Nicola Sturgeon’s ex-husband splashed out £16,400 on a Volkswagen Golf, £57,500 on a Jaguar and £125,000 on a motor home.
Bizarrely, he also spent nearly £6,000 on coffee machines, £2,600 on a salt-and-pepper grinder, and nearly £2,000 on umbrellas. The extraordinary nature of the crime is only matched by the apparent ignorance of senior SNP figures, not least the former First Minister.
When Murrell’s spending spree took place, they were Scotland’s foremost power couple. She was the recipient of much of the largesse – jewellery, make-up, a custom-made library.
‘Not my crimes’
Sturgeon says she had "no knowledge or suspicion whatsoever that he was using SNP funds for personal purposes... these are not my crimes. I was misled, just as others were." But there were others who did have clearer vision. Sharp-eyed SNP members questioned the party's management of funds in October 2020 when the party's accounts showed just £97,000 in the bank despite fundraisers raising £600,000.
A leaked video of the SNP's National Executive Committee in March 2021 shows Sturgeon shutting down the concerns, claiming the party was in a strong financial position and warning: "Just be very careful about suggestions there are problems with the party's finances because we depend on donors to donate.”
Then-MP Joanna Cherry and SNP treasurer Douglas Chapman took a different view and quit their party roles citing concerns about transparency. The then-Deputy First Minister John Swinney said he couldn’t understand why Chapman had resigned.
Asked whether Police Scotland was investigating the diversion of party funds, Swinney, who first appointed Murrell in 2001, replied: "Not to my knowledge, no." Either Swinney was playing hard and fast with the truth or he was breathtakingly clueless.
How can taxpayers trust SNP?
The victims in this case are the ordinary party members who believed their hard-earned cash would be put towards the SNP’s next independence campaign, but with Swinney now the First Minister, everyone in Scotland will have questions to ask.
Swinney’s first act since being re-elected has been to table a debate on independence. But putting aside the constitutional debate, after the Murrell case, why would anyone trust the SNP with their money, let alone Scotland’s finances?
The First Minister should be the custodian of taxpayers’ money, especially when Scots already feel they’re paying more and getting less.
Swinney and Sturgeon are competing to be the most shocked and ignorant when it comes to financial affairs. Indeed Sturgeon, as the SNP leader, was the accountable officer responsible for signing off the accounts when money was clearly missing.
If they can’t even detect money haemorrhaging in their own party, what hope do they have of ensuring that money is well spent across Scotland? Swinney should offer compensation to the SNP members whose money was stolen, and explain what he knew and what the party knew.
There should be a review into why Murrell’s court hearing was held after the election and why the public were denied the truth until the timing was more convenient for the SNP. And the nationalists must end their culture of secrecy so that whistleblowers, whether in their party or government, are finally heard.
Jackie Baillie MSP is Scottish Labour’s deputy leader
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