FM’S election launch marred by police move on SNP fraud probe
Swinney blow as report on Murrell handed to prosecutors
JOHN Swinney’s bid to kick off the SNP’S General Election campaign was overshadowed after Police Scotland announced that a report has been sent to prosecutors in relation to former party chief executive Peter Murrell’s embezzlement charge.
The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service also confirmed that investigations involving his wife Nicola Sturgeon and ex-treasurer Colin Beattie were still ongoing.
News of the latest development in the long-running Operation Branchform probe came just hours after the First Minister picked a fight with Holyrood’s Standards Committee for recommending Michael Matheson be banned from Parliament for 27 working days.
While the cross-party group of MSPS were split on the length of the punishment, they had unanimously backed calls for his salary to be withdrawn for 54 days, a financial penalty roughly equivalent to the size of the ex-health secretary’s £11k data roaming bill.
It was one of the harshest sanctions ever meted out by the committee.
But Mr Swinney claimed the probe into his “friend and colleague” had been “prejudiced” because of comments made by one of the committee’s Tory members.
The double blow to Mr Swinney came on the day that Rishi Sunak was in Inverness to kick-start the Tories’ election campaign, while Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will be in Glasgow today.
Scotland is seen as a key battleground for the two main UK parties, who will hope to capitalise on voters deserting the SNP to gain seats to secure overall victory.
Police Scotland yesterday announced they had “submitted a standard prosecution report to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service ( COPFS) in relation to a 59-year-old man who was charged on 18 April, 2024, in connection with the embezzlement of funds from the Scottish National Party”.
“Investigations continue and we are unable to comment further,” the force added.
A spokesperson for the COPFS said: “Professional prosecutors from COPFS and independent counsel will review this report. They will make decisions on the next steps without involving the Lord Advocate or Solicitor General.
“All Scotland’s prosecutors operate independently of political influence. Decisions on how to proceed are taken by prosecutors acting independently and are based upon available evidence, legal principles, and the merits of each case. They are not influenced by political events.”
Mr Murrell – the husband of Ms Sturgeon – was initially arrested on April 5, 2023 before being released without charge, pending further inquiries being carried out.
Last month, he was rearrested and charged in connection with embezzlement of party funds.
Mr Beattie was also arrested in April last year, while Ms Sturgeon was arrested on June 11, 2023. Both were subsequently released.
Operation Branchform was triggered after complaints over how £660,000 of donations given to the SNP to fight an independence referendum were used.
When Mr Murrell was first arrested, officers searched the home he shares with Ms Sturgeon in Glasgow, and the SNP’S HQ in Edinburgh.
A £110,000 luxury motorhome was also seized by police from outside the home of Mr Murrell’s mother in Dunfermline.
A spokesperson for the SNP said: “It would be inappropriate to comment while a police investigation continues.”
Today, Sir Keir Starmer will promise that his government will “take Scotland in a different direction”.
Speaking ahead of a visit to Glasgow today to launch Scottish Labour’s election campaign, the party boss reaffirmed his commitment to Great British Energy.
He said: “With Labour, Scotland will lead the clean energy revolution. We will set up Great
British energy to give Scotland the future it deserves. Cut your bills for good, boost our energy security, and it’ll be headquartered here in Scotland.”
The visit comes after unions criticised Sir Keir’s ban on new North Sea licences without a plan for just a transition.
Last week, Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite the union, said workers in oil and gas are “at risk of becoming the coal miners of our generation.”
The union – Labour’s biggest donor at the 2019 General Election – wants to see more specific pledges of investment in green technologies.
They have warned that more than £6 billion is needed over the next six years for wind turbine manufacture in Scotland.
She said: “You should not be letting go of one rope before you’ve got hold of another. My main thing is that I cannot allow these workers to be sacrificed on the altar of net zero.”
John Swinney had earlier insisted the SNP can afford to fight the General Election, despite donations drying up in the wake of the police investigation into the party’s finances.
Electoral Commission records released earlier this year show the central party received just one major donation from a living individual in 2023.
Hugh Harkins gifted £5,000. There were, however, bequests worth £246,000 and £4,000 from the estates of two late supporters, Estelle Brownrig and James Murdoch, respectively.
Meanwhile, accounts published last August show the SNP made a loss of more than £800,000 in 2022, the second biggest deficit the party has recorded. Income from SNP membership subscriptions fell from £2,516,854 in 2021 to £2,286,944 in 2022, while reportable donations over the same period dropped from £695,351 to £368,538.
Asked about the state of the party’s finances, the First Minister said that the Nationalists would “obviously have to raise money from our supporters” to ensure a “well-funded election campaign”.
Mr Swinney told BBC Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland: “Don’t you worry about the money – we’ll find the money to fight the election campaign; we’ll get on with that.”
Meanwhile, in other General Election news Lorna Slater, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, said her party will stand dozens of candidates.
And in what could be a boost to Labour, she also ruled out any deals with the SNP.
Don’t you worry about the money – we’ll find the money
She said: “The SNP’S fortunes are a matter for the SNP.
“The independence movement – and it should be and is – larger than any one political party, so support for independence has been around about half the country for a while now and we aren’t going to get independence just from people elected to Westminster, it actually needs to be a national movement, we need to get support for independence up higher.”
“There has been no discussions of deals, there are no deals of that kind, we’ve already chosen our candidates,” she added.
South of the Border, Nigel Farage said he would not stand for parliament.
The Reform UK honorary president said he would be focusing instead on getting Donald Trump re-elected.
The party’s leader, Richard Tice, insisted they would still be standing candidates in every seat in Scotland.