Nicola Sturgeon was last night facing tough questions after her husband admitted plundering political funds. Peter Murrell was led away from court in handcuffs yesterday and faces jail for embezzling £400,000 from the Scottish National Party. Yet despite a stream of luxury goods passing through their home, the former first minister said she was 'misled just as others were'.
Luxury Spending Spree
Critics, however, claimed it was 'inconceivable' she had not spotted the tell-tale signs. As well as cars and a £125,000 motorhome, Murrell, 61, splashed out on salt and pepper grinders worth £2,600, spent nearly £6,000 on coffee machines, thousands more on Montblanc pens and £4,500 on watches in different colours. Starting just a few weeks after he and Ms Sturgeon married in 2010, the SNP chief executive helped himself to funds over 12 years, he admitted at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday. A charge sheet that ran to 126 pages also detailed a £110 pencil sharpener, a Smythson dressing table and tea set alongside toilet seats and laundry baskets. Nearly £2,000 was spent on umbrellas. More than £16,400 of party money was used to help buy a Volkswagen Golf in 2016 and another £57,500 of SNP cash went towards the purchase of a Jaguar I-Pace in 2020.
Sturgeon's Response
Ms Sturgeon was arrested and questioned by police in 2023 as part of the probe into the SNP's finances, but never charged. She announced last year she and Murrell had split and had been 'separated for some time now'. After her estranged husband was remanded into custody yesterday pending sentencing next month, the former Scottish leader issued a statement via Instagram. She said she was 'angry, hurt, sad and very distressed' at his actions and had suffered a 'profound personal trauma'. She added: 'To be deceived and let down by a husband I loved and trusted has caused me acute pain. Why he acted as he did is, and always will be, beyond my comprehension.'
Ms Sturgeon, who has a lucrative new career as an author and speaker on leadership and 'reputation', vehemently denied wrongdoing. She went on: 'To be clear, I had no knowledge or suspicion whatsoever that he was using SNP funds for personal purposes. That I was fully cleared after a thorough investigation underlines that these are not my crimes. I was misled, just as others were.' Murrell was earning just short of £80,000 a year when he stepped down from the party in 2023.
Political Reactions
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said: 'Peter Murrell has finally taken the rap for being a thieving magpie - but he used vast sums of the stolen cash to feather the marital nest he shared with Nicola Sturgeon. His crime spree took place right under her nose over many years while they jointly held a vice-like grip on the SNP. You would need to be a particularly gullible member of Nicola Sturgeon's fan club to swallow her preposterous protestations of ignorance about her husband's criminal racket. As a supposed master of fine detail, is it really plausible to believe that she didn't notice that her crooked husband was spending money like a lottery jackpot winner? Did she never think to ask Peter where the money was coming from?'
Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: 'This was a large-scale fraud which Nicola Sturgeon benefited from... It is inconceivable that she knew nothing about this.' But after current First Minister John Swinney gave a faltering performance at a press conference as he was quizzed about her denial, Ms Sturgeon later issued a second statement via lawyers. Repeating her denial, she said she was 'not aware' of Murrell ever buying many items, including manicure kits and a copy of her speeches, saying she only learned of the campervan when 'it featured in the police investigation in early 2023'. The Scottish Mail on Sunday revealed it had been seized from outside Murrell's mother's home in Dunfermline in 2023.
Further Details
Ms Sturgeon said she had 'no reason to doubt' Murrell 'used his own money' on other purchases. Painting a picture of a life spent apart, she said: '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.' Last night the owner of Shetland Jewellery, Kenneth Rae, told BBC Scotland News that Murrell called himself 'the man with the money' when he and Ms Sturgeon visited the shop during a by-election campaign in 2019. Murrell bought his wife a gold pendant depicting the northern lights, which he has now admitted was one of hundreds of items he purchased using embezzled funds. Mr Rae said: '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".' Sturgeon was seen wearing the pendant, which according to court documents cost £425, several times that summer and in the chamber of the Scottish Parliament. Years later Police Scotland flew to Shetland to take a statement from the shop as part of their embezzlement investigation.
Ms Sturgeon abruptly resigned as first minister in February 2023 after eight years in the role. Murrell quit as SNP chief executive a month later, before being arrested as part of a police investigation into the party's finances in April 2023. That year, a leaked video of a meeting of the SNP's ruling body from March 2021 showed Ms Sturgeon playing down concerns about the party's finances. She told the National Executive Committee (NEC): 'The party has never been in a stronger financial position.' She warned colleagues: 'Just be very careful about suggestions that there are problems with the party's finances because we depend on donors to donate.' Her comments coincided with three officials quitting the SNP's finance and audit committee after Murrell refused to show them the books.
Former SNP MP Joanna Cherry KC, who quit the NEC over finance concerns, said people had been 'monstered' by Sturgeon loyalists for daring to ask questions. She said: 'I tried to ask questions about it. I was treated appallingly, and I saw others treated appallingly... Murrell wouldn't have got away with it if the mechanisms that were in place for scrutiny hadn't been frustrated by his wife and others in the NEC.'
