SNP Embezzled £400k in Member Donations for Personal Use

Nicola Sturgeon said she was "deceived, betrayed and lied to" by her estranged husband after he admitted embezzling £400,310.65 from the SNP between August 2010 and October 2022. She made the comments during her first public appearance since the guilty plea, speaking at a writers' festival in Listowel, County Kerry, while promoting her memoir.

The guilty plea was entered at the High Court in Edinburgh on Monday. The man was remanded in custody and is due to be sentenced on 23 June, with an examination of facts scheduled for 2 June. Sturgeon said she had not spent much time in the kitchen of the couple's former home in Uddingston and had assumed the purchases were affordable given both partners' earnings.

She added that she had answered "no comment" during police interviews but later provided a written response, and was told last year that she was no longer under investigation.

" First Minister John Swinney dismissed calls for a Holyrood inquiry, saying a five-year police investigation had already examined the matter. Sturgeon said she would share her full account once the legal process concludes. >"Just as other people have been, I have been deceived.