One whole year has passed since the infamous forensic tent was set up outside former first minister Nicola Sturgeon’s Glasgow home. On the same day, her husband and former chief executive of the party, Peter Murrell, was arrested in connection with the police probe into the ‘missing’ £600,000 of donations the party received for its IndyRef2 campaign. The police investigation, Operation Branchform, has been ongoing for three years and The Spectator has documented every twist and turn.
Peter Murrell, former SNP CEO, is arrested
A year ago today, the former chief executive of the SNP and Sturgeon’s husband, was arrested at 7.45am and taken into police custody. Murrell was questioned in relation to the police probe for almost 12 hours before being released, pending further investigation. The infamous forensic police tent was erected outside Sturgeon’s Glasgow home while police simultaneously raided the SNP’s headquarters in Edinburgh. A media frenzy ensued, and some London-based journalists got a little overexcited, mistakenly reporting that the police were, um, digging up Sturgeon’s garden. (The News Agents later retitled their podcast.) SNP MSP Michelle Thomson was a little rattled by the fact the party had not suspended Murrell after his police meeting, while former first minister Alex Salmond said he was ‘very sad’ for the SNP. First Minister Humza Yousaf told the media it was a ‘difficult day’ for the party. That’s putting it mildly…
SNP auditors quit
To add insult to injury, the news that SNP’s long-term auditors had resigned broke only two days after Murrell’s arrest and the raid of SNP HQ. Johnston Carmichael had worked with the Nats for over a decade, but the company said that it had taken the decision following a review of its client portfolio. The SNP was thrown into further chaos as a result, as the beleaguered party continued to search, without much initial success, for replacement auditors – so to avoid being sanctioned under political funding laws.
Revelations about the SNP’s auditors (or lack thereof) went on to ruffle feathers within the party’s very own national executive committee. It transpired that the resignation of the party’s auditors, details on finances and the exodus of party members all came as much a surprise to the party’s ruling group as they had to the rest of the country. NEC member Bill Ramsay, convenor of the party’s trade union group, then threatened to quit if the party didn’t manage to hire new auditors. Meanwhile, an NEC whistleblower blasted ‘power couple’ Sturgeon and Murrell, alleging how the pair had demanded that the NEC be ‘disbanded’ and slamming the SNP for becoming ‘rotten to the core’. Ouch…
While the party later secured accountants (in the form of the AMS Accountants Group, which specialise in services catering to, er, dental professionals) the auditor fiasco resulted in a bust-up between new Westminster group leader Stephen Flynn and his predecessor Ian Blackford. The men eventually sorted things over a drink and a rather, um, awkward photo…
All’s well that ends well…
Police seize SNP campervan
In a rather bizarre turn of events, Police Scotland seized a luxury motorhome worth over £110,000 from the Dunfermline driveway of Sturgeon’s mother-in-law. Yousaf was forced to admit that the motorhome did in fact belong to the party but told the media that he only became aware of the motorhome ‘shortly after I became leader of the party’. Talk about hitting the ground running…
In a peculiar development, only last month it was reported that senior figures in the SNP are now demanding that they, er, get their campervan back. What does a police probe matter when you’ve got to prep the party bus for election year, eh?
Leaked SNP footage reveals Sturgeon’s finance lecture
The Sunday Mail managed to get its hands on a secret video of Sturgeon that showed the former first minister raging at a 2021 NEC meeting that the party’s finances had ‘never been stronger’. The Dear Leader told SNP apparatchiks to be ‘very careful’ about suggesting there were ‘any problems’ with the accounts. The former first minister finished her tirade with a cautionary statement about sharing meeting details:
Lastly, we’ve got to be careful as an NEC that we don’t reap what we sow, if we have leaks from this body it limits the ability for open, free and frank discussion… If there are leaks, as with everything else, that gets more difficult to do so. Everybody has to be very clear about that.
Not that her warnings was heeded. And it transpired only last month that this video has now become a main focus of the ongoing police probe…
Watch it here:
SNP treasurer is arrested
Two weeks after Murrell’s arrest, the SNP’s treasurer Colin Beattie was taken into police custody, arrested on 17 April 2023 before being released later that day. Beattie’s arrest came two days after he was reported to have told the SNP’s NEC that after losing 30,000 members the party was running out of cash – with the legal costs linked to Operation Branchform not particularly helping either. After being questioned, Beattie quit as treasurer – but not before one of Yousaf’s big speeches to Holyrood was ruined by the news.
Stephen Flynn left in the dark over motorhome purchase
Beattie returned to Holyrood after his arrest and resignation – and had to face a barrage of questions from reporters. The floundering politician admitted, when asked whether he had known about and signed off the campervan purchase, that: ‘No, I did not know about it.’
On the same day, SNP Westminster group leader Stephen Flynn admitted to Mr S that he had not been made aware of the motorhome either. ‘I’ll be straightforward with you,’ he said. ‘I became aware when it was on the front of a newspaper.’ That inner circle must really have been rather small…
Questions raised over SNP police raid timing
The story took a murky turn in May when fresh revelations came out about the timing of the infamous police raid on Sturgeon’s home. While Police Scotland put their requests for a search warrant of the ‘power couple’ property during the SNP leadership contest, on 20 March 2023, officers had to wait another two weeks until they got the green light on 3 April – seven days after the race had wrapped up. Talk about convenient timing…
Nicola Sturgeon is arrested
On Sunday 11 June, Police Scotland arrested former first minister Nicola Sturgeon in connection with the probe into SNP finances. The SNP’s Dear Leader was later released that evening without charge, pending further investigation.
In a baffling move, the Nats decided not to suspend their leader – despite a feeling that Sturgeon would have suspended Sturgeon had she still had the top job – but instead send her, um, flowers. Depute leader of the SNP, Keith Brown, revealed that the bouquet had been sent to the former first minister ‘as a mark of sympathy, given what she has been through over recent days’.
Editor of ‘The Vow’ replaces Murrell as SNP CEO
After Murray Foote left his post as the party’s head of communications in a fit of rage – after he realised he had inadvertently misled the press on the party’s membership figures – Murrell stepped down as chief executive. In a remarkable turn of events, Foote later returned to the party, taking Murrell’s former job. The former Daily Record editor receives a mixed reaction among nationalists. Credited with ‘The Vow’ splash that many, including Salmond, believe swung the independence referendum result to a ‘No’, Foote is regarded as a rather controversial choice. Before he rejoined the party, however, Foote made headlines when he remarked that the police investigation into the SNP’s finances was ‘a grotesque circus’ and said he was confident there would be no charges. A bold claim…
Police probe purchase of £95,000 Jaguar
And an £110,000 motorhome wasn’t enough for the Nats apparently. At the end of last year, it transpired that Police Scotland was also investigating the purchase of a luxury £95,000 electric Jaguar, thought to have been purchased by Murrell in 2019. Alright for some!
Humza Yousaf told journalists on Wednesday that ‘all of us in the SNP would like to see a conclusion to Operation Branchform’. Mr S can imagine. It’s caused Yousaf no end of grief since his premiership began, and it’s hardly the kind of thing a First Minister would want hanging over his party as it heads into a general election – especially when the SNP is forecast to lose over half its seats…
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