Nicola Sturgeon may be leaving Holyrood next year, but the spectre of Operation Branchform isn’t going away any time soon. It transpires that Scotland’s former first minister is still under investigation by the police over the probe into the SNP’s finances and funding – with the four-year investigation running up costs of over £2 million. And it hasn’t wrapped up yet…
The SNP’s former Dear Leader and the party’s ex-treasurer Colin Beattie remain under investigation after their arrests in 2023, as the National reports today. Police Scotland told Mr S last October that their probe had finished, adding that: ‘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.’ Talk about dragging it out, eh?
The news that the probe, um, hasn’t progressed comes as a Freedom of Information request revealed that a whopping £2.1
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