Sturgeon: I didn’t shut down people raising concerns about SNP finances

Nicola Sturgeon has said she did not shut down SNP figures who raised concerns about the party’s finances when she was leader.

The former first minister hit out at her critics and said people were saying things about her that were “not true” as she warned: “Now that I’m able to speak, wait for a lot more of it.”

It comes after former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell – the estranged husband of Ms Sturgeon – admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from the party over 12 years.

The SNP has since faced calls for an independent inquiry into its finances.

Critics, including former SNP MP and NEC member Joanna Cherry, said those who had raised financial concerns under Ms Sturgeon’s leadership were shut down and called “traitors”.

A leaked video of a 2023 NEC meeting showed Ms Sturgeon warning party members to be “very careful” suggesting there were issues with its finances.

Ms Sturgeon said people have been ‘quick to point the finger of suspicion at me’ PA Media

Just two months later, Ms Cherry, along with then SNP treasurer Douglas Chapman, resigned from the ruling body, citing concerns about transparency.

Appearing at the Hay Festival in Wales, Ms Sturgeon was asked if she had shut people down for raising questions about party accounts.

“No, I didn’t,” she said. “These are comments that have been reported from me back in 2021.

“There was no suggestion that there was an issue of embezzlement of SNP funds until about, to my knowledge, 2023.”

She said it was “rubbish” to suggest no one had looked at the accounts as they were audited by professional auditors.

She added: “Back then, there was an issue when the police investigation started, money that had been fundraised for a second independence referendum, people started to say, ‘well, had that been used for election campaigning?’.

“I thought that was an unfair criticism and I was also frustrated at that point that the national executive committee, some people in the national executive committee, instead of doing the job properly of scrutinising the accounts in front of them, were leaking things to the press.

“Again, I’ve not been able to speak for the last three years that this police investigation has been under way because it’s been a live criminal case.

“So again, I’ve had to sit and listen to people say things about me, read things about me that are not true, and so now that I’m able to speak, wait for a lot more of it.”

Ms Sturgeon was Scotland’s first minister from 2014 to 2023 while Murrell served as the SNP chief executive from 2001 to 2023.

Murrell pleaded guilty to embezzling more than £400,000 to pay for a range of items, including a motorhome, various luxury goods and two cars.

Other purchases included designer kitchenware, multiple pairs of shoes, expensive pens and a £1,200 space telescope.

Former first minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon in conversation with Francine Stock during the Hay Festival PA Media

Ms Sturgeon said people have been “quick to point the finger of suspicion at me” and said she understood why people would ask how she could not have known about the crimes.

But she said she had been “completely cleared and exonerated” by police and that she had been lied to by her former husband.

She said: “It’s a deeply painful thing personally to come to terms with and I’m only in the foothills of coming to terms with the fact that the person I was married to for a long time is somebody I clearly didn’t know as well as I thought I did.

Ms Sturgeon said she did not think she was ‘responsible for somebody committing a crime’ despite past decisions PA Media

“Somebody who misled me, deceived me, lied to me, and put me in considerable peril.”

The former SNP leader added: “I think my picture has been on more front pages in Scotland this week than my former husband’s has and I don’t think that is right.

“It’s the age-old cry of when a man does something wrong, well, the woman must have known about it, somehow it’s her fault.

“And I get that to some extent. I get that people will look at the situation and say, ‘How could you not know?’. But there’s an assumption there that all of this stuff he was using SNP funds to buy, is stuff I was aware of.

“A lot of it I’ve read about for the first time in the papers.

“I was reading stuff on Monday that I’d never known before, items that I don’t know who they were bought for, I don’t know where they were, but I didn’t see them.

“And those things I was aware of, nothing made me think there were things he couldn’t have afforded.”

Ms Sturgeon said she had been “vilified” by some and added: “I do not think it is fair that I get held responsible for the crimes of somebody else.”

The former first minister admitted it was a “misjudgement” to keep her then-husband in the post of chief executive, with the pair running Scotland’s governing party for years.

Former SNP MP Joanna Cherry said the ‘social media dogs’ were set upon those questioning the party’s finances under Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership PA Media

She said her predecessor, Alex Salmond, had urged her not to continue keeping Murrell in post.

“Definitely, with the benefit of hindsight, that probably was a decision I wish I’d taken differently,” she said, saying she did not think it was fair for Murrell to lose his job when she became leader.

“If I could turn the clock back, of course, I would take a different decision,” she added.

“So I take responsibility for that. I still don’t think it makes me responsible for somebody committing a crime.”