As Scots look ahead to the 2026 Holyrood election, support for the Scottish National Party continues to plummet. One scandal that the Nats won’t want looming over them when Scotland heads to the polls is Operation Branchform: the long-running police probe into the SNP’s funds and finances. Mr S can confirm that the investigation into the party – and its former first minister Nicola Sturgeon – is still ongoing, despite Scotland’s Crown Office receiving the latest Police Scotland report a two months ago. Talk about dragging it out.
Sturgeon’s husband, Peter Murrell, was charged with embezzlement of party funds this year, after an investigation was launched in 2021 into a ‘missing’ sum of £600,000 fundraised by for a second independence referendum campaign. Murrell was arrested alongside the party treasurer and the SNP’s former Dear Leader last year, after a police raid of both SNP HQ and the Glasgow home Sturgeon shared with Murrell – with officers lifting pots and pans, women’s razors and, er, a wheelbarrow from the former first minister’s house.
Developments became stranger when a luxury motorhome worth £110,000 was picked up by police – with the party leadership claiming it was bought for campaign purposes. Yet when Mr S quizzed the party’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn about it all, he revealed he had no idea about the campervan until ‘it was on the front of a newspaper.’ And the party’s treasurer Colin Beattie – also arrested last year in connection with the probe – denied knowledge of the purchase too. How very curious…
Police Scotland told Steerpike that it is still waiting to receive advice from the Crown Office on the matter: ‘On 9 August 2024, we presented the findings of the investigation so far to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and we await their direction on what further action should be taken.’ They’re taking their time.
When Mr S spoke to the Crown Office today, a spokesperson noted that Sturgeon remains under police investigation, stating:
A standard prosecution report has been received by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service from Police Scotland in relation to a 59-year-old man and incidents said to have occurred between 2016 and 2023. Connected investigations of two other individuals, a man aged 72 and a 53-year-old woman, remain ongoing.
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.
But the very matter of the case rumbling on in the background is rather damaging the party’s prospects. As polling guru Sir John Curtice noted, Operation Branchform and the arrest of Sturgeon contributed to a rather large drop in SNP support. Sean Clerkin, the man who reported the party over the ‘missing’ money, has demanded that the probe ends soon – and before the 2026 election – to ensure any potential criminal trials don’t influence the Scottish parliament poll. In a nod to similar calls, the Crown Office added:
Before deciding what action to take, if any, in the public interest, prosecutors will consider if there is enough evidence. There must be evidence from at least two separate sources to establish that a crime was committed and that the person under investigation was the perpetrator.
Some party figures are thinking along rather similar lines to Clerkin, with them keen to see a swift end to the police probe and the removal of the dark and distracting cloud hovering over the party before 2026. The Nats are currently predicted to lose around 20 seats in the next Holyrood poll – and the election countdown is on. Tick tock.
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