What next for Scottish National Party after Peter Murrell scandal - EUROPE SAYS
“What does the SNP need over £19,000 of luxury pens for?” asks the police officer questioning Peter Murrell in a grainy interview room clip released to the media. He has no answer. Spending what, for some,. . .
“What does the SNP need over £19,000 of luxury pens for?” asks the police officer questioning Peter Murrell in a grainy interview room clip released to the media. He has no answer. Spending what, for some, could be the equivalent of a year’s wages on writing implements, feels completely detached from reality. Yesterday in Edinburgh, the former chief executive of the SNP (Scottish National Party) was sentenced to five years and three months in prison after he admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from his former party. He showed little emotion, staring straight ahead in the dock, before being led away in handcuffs. It’s an extraordinary fall for a man who was part of Scotland’s most powerful couple for so many years after marrying former SNP leader and First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon in 2010, pictured below in 2022. Peter Murrell was respected and well paid. The motivation for his crimes is hard to fathom. Anyone hoping for more clarity on Murrell’s motives would have been disappointed. Judge Lord Young told him it was very difficult to get a clear picture of what drove his actions; many of the items he purchased were unused. He described Murrell’s crime as “calculated and dishonest”. He carried out a large number of fraudulent acts over a 12-year period. The offending increased in frequency and amount over time. Share Channel 4 NewsThe details have made Murrell a figure of public ridicule and the images this case has thrown up are likely to linger in the public memory long after the legal proceedings fade. The infamous £124,000 motorhome, parked on his mother’s driveway and only ever driven four miles. Supplied / Police ScotlandThe Jaguar car he created a false invoice for. Le Creuset Mickey Mouse Ramekins for £39 and the computer game Grand Theft Auto for £42. 99 add to the absurdity. Supplied / Police ScotlandThat is before you reach the £2,500 crystal salt and pepper grinders. Murrell used party charge cards to spend over £42,000 in Amazon purchases alone, splitting the spend over three cards to avoid suspicion. As chief executive he had ultimate approval of all expense claims, including his own. He sometimes told colleagues he was unable to access the party expense system and was therefore able to submit claims without providing a receipt. This was not the work of a criminal mastermind, but rather a man easily able to exploit a lack of checks and balances. Sturgeon, who is now separated from Murrell, has always strenuously denied any knowledge of his wrongdoing. She was arrested as part of the police investigation, but later told she would face no charges. She says she does not recall seeing the campervan that was parked up on her mother-in-law’s drive. The former first minister, pictured below in 2023, who has left the political stage, was door-stepped at various book festivals,including by Channel 4 News. In her only broadcast interview with the BBC, she said she was “serving a sentence for a crime I didn’t commit”. But this is not just a matter of what a wife knew about her husband. Sturgeon was party leader and for some there are questions over her role in signing off the SNP accounts. In March 2021, she told the National Executive Committee that the party had never been in a stronger financial position and warned people to be careful about suggesting there were problems. The former first minister’s solicitor issued an angry statement yesterday. “Whilst anonymous sources have desperately tried to insinuate guilt, it is clear following a two year gold-plated and robust investigation, Ms Sturgeon was neither charged, prosecuted or convicted of any offence. “Ms Sturgeon is innocent of any crime and whilst that might be a source of annoyance for some, it remains a fact that it was Mr Murrell who was charged, tried, convicted and imprisoned for his crimes today (Tuesday). ”First Minister of Scotland John Swinney, a childhood friend of Peter Murrell, has described Murrell’s actions as a “betrayal” and apologised to party members. But he has also rejected calls for a parliamentary inquiry into the case, saying it would not provide more answers than the four-year police investigation. Yet a scandal that has constantly run in the background over the last five years has not delivered a fatal blow to SNP fortunes. The SNP was comfortably returned to government in May, just before the guilty plea. Last week, the party lost a byelection in Aberdeen South to the Scottish Conservatives. But oil and gas policy played a much larger role in that than Murrell, with the party holding on to another Westminster seat in Arbroath and Broughty Ferry. The SNP’s association with independence will always provide protection. But as long as he is leader, Swinney, who spent so many years as Sturgeon’s number two, will struggle to extricate himself from questions about the scandal and how it could be allowed to happen. At all his court appearances, Murrell has cut a lonely figure. He intends to pay back the money in full. The jail sentence will only be part of his punishment. This scandal has ended his career. It also ended his marriage, though there was no mention of that yesterday. Emphasis was put on the fact he is remorseful and recognises that he is “entirely to blame”. The court heard he faces a bleak and solitary future as a result of his crimes. Share Channel 4 NewsLeave a comment