Downfall: Peter Murrell's journey from powerful SNP boss to convicted embezzler

Peter Murrell, the former chief executive of the SNP, ends his association with the party he helped transform into the most popular force in Scottish politics, as a convicted criminal after spending funds donated by party members and forging documents to cover his tracks.

Having resigned as SNP chief executive in 2023 after “misleading” membership numbers were issued under his authority, Mr Murrell separated from Ms Sturgeon after being married for almost 15 years.

Despite his marriage to the former first minister grabbing the headlines, the 61-year-old played a leading role in turning the SNP into an almost-unstoppable election-winning operation and continuous party of government since 2007.

Mr Murrell had been at the helm of the SNP for more than a decade when he married Ms Sturgeon at Oran Mor in Glasgow’s West End in the summer of 2010.

The duo met at an SNP youth weekend in 1988 while Mr Murrell worked in Alex Salmond’s constituency office in Peterhead, and became a couple in 2003.

In Ms Sturgeon’s memoirs, Frankly, she said that during the 2003 election campaign, “we worked together closely, seeing each other almost every day”.

READ MORE: Peter Murrell LIVE: Former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell pleads guilty to embezzlement charges

She added: “It was when that was over and we no longer had to spend so much time together that I realised I still wanted to. And so did he.

“We tentatively started seeing each other outside of work as he, like me, was emerging from a long-term relationship. But as the year progressed, despite our intentions to take things slowly, we became a couple. I was happy.”

“With him, more than anyone, I felt I could be myself”, Ms Sturgeon added.

The couple started living together in 2005 and Murrell proposed to Ms Sturgeon at their home on Hogmanay 2009. The couple married less than seven months later, three days before Ms Sturgeon turned 40.

The couple did not have children but Ms Sturgeon later revealed the painful experience of suffering a miscarriage when she was 40, shortly before the 2011 Scottish parliamentary election campaign began.

Ms Sturgeon did not shy away from the importance of Murrell’s own role within the SNP.

“In its own way, Peter’s contribution to the party’s success was just as important as mine and Alex’s”, she said.

But Murrell’s role in the SNP’s almost-constant electoral success was largely one in the background.

That all changed in 2020 when he came under scrutiny, as did Ms Sturgeon and her inner circle, during the Holyrood inquiry into the Scottish government’s handling of complaints against Mr Salmond.

The inquiry investigated how the Scottish government botched a probe into sexual misconduct claims levelled against Mr Salmond in 2018 after winning a judicial review showing the process had been “tainted by apparent bias” that left taxpayers with a £512,000 bill for his costs.

After his civil case victory, Mr Salmond was charged with sexual assault in January 2019, leading to a criminal trial and acquittal on all counts in March 2020.

Speaking under oath nine months after Mr Salmond’s acquittal, Murrell said it was “not true” that text messages he sent urging police and prosecution against the former first minister were evidence of a conspiracy.

Murrell told MSPs on the Holyrood committee that the messages were “out of character”, but have been viewed by Mr Salmond’s supporters as evidence of a high-level plot to stop him making a political comeback and rivalling his successor.

Critics accused Murrell of having contradicted himself, and Ms Sturgeon, over some of his testimony - but no evidence has ever been produced of an organised conspiracy against Mr Salmond.

Mr Murrell was thrown back into the media spotlight two years later, in December 2022, when he admitted loaning £107,620 to the SNP to help ease “cash flow” issues.

In February 2023, Ms Sturgeon shocked Scottish politics when she announced she was quitting as first minister and SNP leader, formally resigning the following month and being replaced by Humza Yousaf.

At the same time, Murrell was forced to quit his position as chief executive after being accused of issuing “misleading” party membership figures that threatened to overshadow the contest to find a replacement for Ms Sturgeon.

The SNP went from a membership of less than 25,000 in 2013 to more than 125,000 by December 2019. But by March 2023, the membership figure had fallen back to 72,000, only reluctantly confirmed after pressure from those vying to replace Ms Sturgeon became insurmountable.

As Murrell was facing a vote of no confidence, the SNP's head of media at Holyrood, Murray Foote, who would then go on to replace Murrell as chief executive, quit, saying there were "serious issues" with statements he had issued in "good faith" on behalf of party bosses.On April 5, 2023, Murrell was arrested as part of Operation Branchform, a police investigation into the misuse of SNP party funds.In jaw-dropping scenes at Murrell and Ms Sturgeon’s home in Uddingston, police searched the premises, with a now-iconic tent erected in the garden. Officers also searched the SNP headquarters in central Edinburgh.

A now infamous Niesmann and Bischoff motorhome, worth £124,550, was seized from Murrell’s mother’s home in Fife - which became a key part of the evidence against him.

In April 2024, Murrell was rearrested and charged with embezzlement.

Get our revamped Steamie newsletter

Ms Sturgeon, who was arrested without charge in June 2023, was told in March 2025, alongside former SNP treasurer Colin Beattie, that she was being cleared of any wrongdoing.

In January 2025, Ms Sturgeon announced that “with a heavy heart” she and Murrell were separating.

"It goes without saying that we still care deeply for each other, and always will", she said.