The SNP finance saga continues to drag on – but today it’s taken a rather strange turn. Last year, a £110,000 motorhome was seized by police from outside Nicola Sturgeon’s mother-in-law’s house as part of Operation Branchform into the party’s finances. On the same day, Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell was arrested, while Sturgeon and the SNP’s treasurer were taken in for questioning at later dates. All three were released, though the campervan purchase is currently being investigated alongside other transactions, including gardening equipment and, er, women’s razors.
The unused vehicle, said to have been purchased for campaigning, caused a stir last year when SNP treasurer Colin Beattie admitted that he had not been aware of the buy, while Westminster leader Stephen Flynn told Mr S that he only became aware ‘when it was on the front of a newspaper’.
The three-year police investigation is making slow progress. As the campervan is approaching a rather sad year spent impounded in a police station, senior SNP figures have had enough. They want it back.
The rather extraordinary development was broken by STV’s Colin Mackay in a report ahead of the SNP’s ‘national council’ mini-conference today, saying:
I think it’s a safe bet that [Humza Yousaf] won’t be mentioning the camper van in his speech tomorrow but I’ve spoken to a number of senior figures in the SNP over the last few days and they want it back. Because it is almost a year since Police Scotland seized the hundred thousand pound vehicle as part of an investigation into SNP funds… But with an election this year, some senior figures in the SNP want the campervan back — either to use during the campaign or to sell, to help raise funds for that.
Goodness. What does a police probe matter when you’ve got to prep the party bus for election year, eh?
The police are also reported to have made a leaked Sturgeon video a focus of their probe into the party’s funds. Police Scotland wouldn’t comment while the investigation remains ongoing however SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn joked at the Perth conference today that the party should put a saltire on it, and even suggested football fans could drive it to football games in this summer’s Euros. Mr S doesn’t want to get ahead of himself but with the Nats predicted to lose over half of their seats to Labour in the general election, they’ll need more than a campervan draped in Scotland flags to make a U-turn in the polls…
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