Peter Murrell, the former chief executive of the Scottish National Party (SNP), reportedly told a jewellery shop owner “I'm the man with the money” during a visit in 2019. Murrell is understood to have purchased a £425 gold pendant, inspired by the Northern Lights, for his then-wife Nicola Sturgeon from Shetland Jewellery in July of that year.
The necklace is among the items that Murrell has admitted buying with funds he embezzled from the SNP between August 2010 and October 2022. Ms Sturgeon was reportedly seen wearing the piece in some of her public appearances.
Ms Sturgeon announced that she and Murrell had decided to end their marriage in January 2025. Murrell, 61, pleaded guilty to embezzling £400,310.65 from the political party when he appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh on Monday.
Jeweller's Account
Kenneth Rae, who ran Shetland Jewellery until his retirement, said that he was working on the day that Murrell and Ms Sturgeon came into the shop on 28 July 2019. He told BBC Scotland: “They came in and then Peter Murrell said, while his wife was in the workshop area, ‘I’m the man with the money. I need to buy something’. We were happy he wanted to buy something.”
He added: “Nicola did wear that pendant quite often and you can see it on television and we’re very popular of the fact that she was wearing a bit of Shetland Jewellery.” Mr Rae said that, a few years later, two police officers came up from Glasgow to interview people in the workshop as part of their investigation. He said: “We were surprised to hear that two policemen were coming up to Shetland to interview us specially about our sale of a gold pendant to Peter Murrell.”
Sturgeon's Response
Ms Sturgeon has said she “had no knowledge or suspicion whatsoever that personal items had been purchased using SNP funds.” In a statement released through her lawyer, Aamer Anwar, Ms Sturgeon said that she and Murrell had separate bank accounts and she had no access to his financial records.
She said: “In relation to many of the items in question, for example expensive watches and games consoles, I was not aware of them having been purchased at all. Indeed in relation to the item of largest value – a campervan – I was not aware of its existence until it featured in the police investigation in early 2023, nor was it parked in our driveway as has been claimed by some.
“In respect of any items I was aware of Peter having purchased, I had no reason to doubt that he had used his own money. We were both earning high salaries and, due to the responsibilities of my job, rarely socialised or went on holidays. We had separate bank accounts and I had no access to his financial records.”
Earlier, Ms Sturgeon said she was “utterly appalled” that her former husband had used the party’s money for personal purposes. She accepted there would be a “political discussion in the light of what has happened” but the former first minister said that for her this “has also been a profound personal trauma.”
