Peter Murrell Pleads Guilty to Embezzling £400,000 From SNP

Peter Murrell pleaded guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh on Monday to embezzling £400,000 from the Scottish National Party between 2010 and 2022. The largest single transaction was £124,550 for a motorhome parked at his mother's house, which police have confiscated. Murrell also spent the funds on two cars, jewellery, handbags, coffee machines and games consoles.

Nicola Sturgeon, who led the SNP from 2014 to 2023, told the BBC she feels she is serving a sentence for a crime she did not commit. She said she had been deceived, betrayed and lied to by her former husband and will not apologise for his actions. Sturgeon added that she rejects any notion she bears responsibility for the embezzlement.

Sturgeon became visibly emotional when describing a necklace costing more than £400 that Murrell bought her from Shetland Jewellery using the stolen money. She said she had no conscious memory of seeing the motorhome and often wore the necklace in public during campaigns. She stated that nothing belonging to her, including her marital home, should be part of any recovery process.

Murrell resigned as SNP chief executive in March 2023 after more than 20 years in the role. He was arrested less than three weeks later as part of Operation Branchform. Sturgeon was arrested two months after him and released without charge.

Murrell was remanded in custody after his guilty plea and is scheduled to be sentenced on 23 June. Sturgeon said she will take responsibility for her own decisions but will not contribute to any sense that she is responsible for somebody else's crimes.

Former SNP MP Joanna Cherry, who resigned from the party's national executive committee in 2021 over transparency concerns, said Sturgeon was setting up a straw man.

Cherry stated the concern is about frustration of legitimate scrutiny of party finances rather than holding Sturgeon guilty for the embezzlement. Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden backed Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar's call for a Holyrood inquiry.

First Minister John Swinney rejected the calls, saying a forensic police investigation resulting in a guilty plea is the highest standard of investigation in Scotland.