The Scottish National Party (SNP) is facing the prospect of two separate civil actions from donors who contributed to a referendum fighting fund, demanding refunds after the money was spent on general party activities rather than a specific independence campaign.
Stuart Campbell, who runs the Wings Over Scotland politics blog, published a draft summons prepared by legal firm Halliday Campbell on behalf of a group of donors seeking their money back. The group action centres on more than £660,000 raised via two online fundraisers in 2017 and 2019, which senior party figures repeatedly claimed would be used for an IndyRef2 campaign that never took place.
Separate Group Considering Legal Options
A separate group of activists, led by Sean Clerkin and David Henry, have yet to join Campbell's action and are considering their own legal steps. Clerkin told the Record: "If people want to join Stuart's action we have no opposition to that. I have already suggested to two people they join him. But we have a group of about 15 people we are in discussions with, and we will be meeting with lawyers next week before we decide a way forward. It may be that we ultimately join Stuart's actions, but for now we want other questions answered first."
Clerkin was the original complainer to Police Scotland in early 2021, raising questions about how the SNP spent the £660,000. Following complaints from several others, police launched Operation Branchform later that year to probe the party's finances. However, in spring 2023, detectives decided to drop the probe into the ring-fenced donations and instead focus on how party cash was spent by former long-serving SNP chief executive Peter Murrell.
Murrell Conviction and SNP Response
Nicola Sturgeon's estranged husband pled guilty in May this year to embezzling more than £400,000 from the SNP and was jailed for five years and three months. First Minister John Swinney has previously said donors would not be offered refunds. Asked last month how the £660,000 had been spent, Swinney said: "That money is part of the resources that are available to the SNP to support its independence objectives and the SNP is the party of independence and that's what we campaign for." When asked if all the money had been spent, he replied: "I'm saying it's part of the ongoing activities of the Scottish National Party. We're the party that campaigns for independence. We just fought an election campaign in which we had a very, very strong anchoring of our campaign for independence. If that's not the use of the resources then I'm not sure I understand what the resources are for."
Asked in May if he would apologise to donors and whether they would get their money back, Swinney said: "Party members have made those donations to the SNP. We don't have that money, it's been stolen from us."
Campbell's Criticism and Further Allegations
Campbell, who first wrote about how the donations were spent in 2020, told the Herald: "The SNP has told nine entirely different stories over six years about what happened to this money. It's sort of refreshing that they've finally admitted they stole it, but bewildering that the police and Crown Office seem inclined to just let them off. We're continuing to separately press for an explanation of that decision, but in the meantime the donors deserve to get their money back, just as the SNP is demanding it gets back the money Peter Murrell stole from the party. If the Crown Office continue to refuse to prosecute what a civil court finds to have been embezzlement, and in our view it's an open-and-shut case, that's going to be pretty embarrassing, and another blow to its already tattered credibility."
Additionally, former Nationalist branch secretary David Henry will meet detectives next week to hand over a dossier of evidence alleging anomalies in the books of Yes Scotland Ltd. The Sunday Mail reported that the company, which ran the official 2014 Yes Scotland referendum campaign, had £1,524,998 in income that is claimed to be unaccounted for.
An SNP spokesperson said: "These were the issues which were fully explored during the course of the forensic police investigation and which resulted in no action taken against the SNP. In the course of this complex and extensive Police investigation, the criminal actions of Peter Murrell were uncovered and the SNP was found to be the victim of embezzlement."
