Arrest marks latest fall for Scotland’s once high-flying power couple
By Rob Harris
London: The husband of Scotland’s former first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has been charged by police after he was arrested amid an investigation into the Scottish National Party’s funding and finances.
Police said Peter Murrell, the former SNP chief executive, was charged on Thursday in connection with the embezzlement of funds from the party.
Then-Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon poses for the media with husband Peter Murrell, outside polling station in Glasgow, Scotland in 2019.Credit: AP
He was taken into custody at 9.13am and was charged more than nine hours later, at 6.35pm, after questioning by Police Scotland detectives investigating the long-running saga.
Sturgeon, who dramatically quit public life in March last year after eight years as party leader and first minister of Scotland’s semi-autonomous government, was herself detained in June but later released as part of Operation Branchform, an investigation into the SNP’s finances.
It was sparked in 2021 after complaints from party donors claimed more than £600,000 ($1.1 million) given during special independence referendum fundraising appeals was spent on other things. The SNP has said all its activities are dedicated to the cause of independence.
Officers from Police Scotland leave the headquarters of the Scottish National Party (SNP) on April 5 with boxes following the arrest of former chief executive Peter Murrell.Credit: PA
Murrell has barely been seen in public since he was forced to quit as SNP chief executive last year, a few weeks before his arrest in a row over false party membership figures supplied to the media.
Officers searched Sturgeon’s home and the SNP’s headquarters in Edinburgh on April 5 last year, with Murrell arrested as a suspect in the investigation and quizzed for 11 hours. Almost two weeks later, Colin Beattie, who was then SNP treasurer, was also arrested. Both men were released without charge pending further inquiries.
At the time of Murrell’s first arrest, police carried out a lengthy search of the home he shares with Sturgeon in Uddingston, south-east of Glasgow. Sturgeon, Murrell and Beattie were the three signatories on the SNP’s accounts. Police also seized a camper van from outside the Fife home of Murrell's mother.
Sturgeon won plaudits during the COVID-19 pandemic for her empathetic and considered handling of the crisis. Her personal approval ratings peaked at 58 per cent in an Ipsos poll in October 2020.
The longest-serving first minister and the only woman to have held the position, Sturgeon said after her release in June that her arrest was “a shock and deeply distressing”.
She had unexpectedly announced she was resigning four months earlier in February 2023. Sturgeon has repeatedly said she was “innocent of any wrongdoing” and has not been re-interviewed since.
A Police Scotland spokesman confirmed a 59-year-old man had been charged “in connection with the embezzlement of funds from the Scottish National Party”.
“A report will be sent to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in due course," police said. "The man is no longer in police custody. As this investigation is ongoing we are unable to comment further."
An SNP spokeswoman said: “It would be inappropriate to comment at this stage.”
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