Scottish Affairs Committee urged to carry out inquiry into Peter Murrell

Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee has been urged to carry out an inquiry into the financial governance that allowed Peter Murrell to embezzle more than £400,000 of SNP funds.

Tory MP Andrew Bowie, the shadow Scottish Secretary, has called for the probe following First Minister John Swinney’s rejection of a parliamentary inquiry at Holyrood.  

Bowie told the Westminster committee that the shortcomings in the party’s governance enabled its former chief executive to use party funds for several years to pay for luxury goods, and that this must be examined to ensure lessons can be learned by all political parties.  

Earlier this week, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader Jackie Baillie led calls for a parliamentary inquiry at Holyrood into Murrell’s actions.

She said Swinney had “a moral obligation to tell the public exactly what he knew and when about these missing funds”, as he was leader of the party when Murrell was appointed chief executive in 2001 and was deputy first minister when the offences were taking place.    

Yesterday, the leaders of Labour, Reform and the Conservatives at Holyrood took aim at Swinney over the matter. Tory leader Russell Findlay suggested that Murrell had a “licence to steal”.  

Despite pressure from across the chamber, Swinney told parliament he will not back an inquiry, saying the multi-million-pound Operation Branchform investigation by Police Scotland had been “forensic”.

Bowie described it as “strange and sinister” that the first minister would seek to block a probe from within Holyrood into the actions of Murrell, given that he has said the SNP are victims of Nicola Sturgeon’s estranged husband’s crimes.  

He said: “John Swinney’s refusal to sanction a Holyrood inquiry into this scandal means it falls to Westminster to examine the failings in financial governance that allowed Peter Murrell to steal from SNP accounts for years.

“I have written to the chair of the Scottish Affairs Committee requesting a probe because there were clearly systemic failings that Murrell exploited. These need to be identified and addressed so that lessons are learned – not just by the SNP but by all political parties.

“It’s strange and sinister that Swinney is opposed to an inquiry. If, as he says, the SNP is the victim in this, then surely he’d want to know exactly how and why the party was fleeced by Murrell?

“A cynic might think he has something to hide, given he and Nicola Sturgeon sought to silence internal whistleblowers who first raised concerns about the state of the party’s finances.

“But SNP donors deserve answers – and so do taxpayers, as it appears public money was in the pot that Murrell stole from to feather the marital nest he shared with Sturgeon.”