John Swinney’s team will be hoping Peter Murrell’s sentencing on June 23rd will draw a line under the most damaging row in the SNP’s history.
Senior party figures are in despair at the endless coverage of Murrell’s embezzlement and just want it to go away. They see a jail sentence, World Cup mania and a looming summer recess as the perfect combo for the circus to move on.
But the prospect of Murrell’s theft fading as a story seems remote at best and laughably optimistic at worst.
Although MSPs rejected a standalone Holyrood inquiry into the Murrell scandal, Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee may yet step up. Cue public hearings, requests for documents from the SNP and the melodrama of Swinney and co refusing to take part.
An inquiry led by Labour MPs would ensure the SNP’s agony continues into 2027. A potential civil action by pro-independence supporters whose donations were stolen by Murrell is another possibility. A proceeds of crime action to recoup Murrell’s ill-gotten gains is inevitable and there is a push for a second police inquiry.
Senior SNP figures may claim this is all terribly unfair, but what do they expect? For over a decade, the SNP was run by a fraudster who used the party bank account as a personal slush fund. At the time of his mis-deeds, he was married to the then SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon who claimed there was no problem with party finances.
The scandal involves criminality and shockingly poor SNP governance while raising questions for bodies like Police Scotland and the Crown Office. Murrell-gate has five years left to run - at least.
