There’s more trouble in Scotland’s nationalist paradise. A storm is brewing amongst members of the SNP’s innermost ruling group as it is revealed that party secrets have been kept from its very own National Executive Committee. The resignation of the party’s auditors, details on finances and the exodus of party members all came as much as a surprise to the party’s ruling group as they had to the rest of the nation.
But it doesn’t stop there. Fresh allegations have sprung from a source deep within the party: an NEC whistleblower described how a group of senior figures including ‘power couple’ Sturgeon and Murrell demanded that the NEC be ‘disbanded’ in order to launch an inquiry meant to save the party from electoral disaster. The anonymous source didn’t hold back, saying that the party has become ‘rotten to the core’.
And now, a member of the SNP’s NEC has threatened to quit if the party does not hire forensic auditors to assess its finances. The threat, which comes from Bill Ramsay, the convenor of the SNP Trade Union Group, comes amid an escalating row over the SNP’s lack of transparency, and an ongoing police investigation into the party’s funds.
Ramsay said:
In June last year, I was making calls for more transparency. Indeed, I forced a vote to ensure that members of the NEC could see how other members were voting. My call for a full-day NEC meeting to address the way the party is run is still being resisted, it seems. This, and talk of a review, is not taking the need for urgent change nearly seriously enough. If the call to appoint forensic auditors is not moved forward, I will have to seriously consider whether I can continue on in the NEC.
This follows the arrest of former chief executive Peter Murrell last week, a police raid both of former first minister Nicola Sturgeon’s own home – and a day-long search of SNP HQ. A campervan worth £110,000 – allegedly bought for ‘campaigning’ purposes during the pandemic – has also been seized from outside Murrell’s mother’s house in Dunfermline. First Minister Humza Yousaf was forced to admit earlier today that even he had not been informed about the motorhome until, er, after he had been elected as SNP leader.
And so the Sturgeon-Murrell saga continues…
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