Former Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont has accused the SNP of wanting to "throw away the key" on Peter Murrell rather than question how he evaded detection for years. Murrell, 61, was sentenced to five years in prison at the High Court in Edinburgh after admitting to embezzling more than £400,000 of party funds over a 12-year period.
Lamont criticises SNP's stance on justice and scrutiny
Speaking on Matt Forde's Political Party podcast, Lamont said the SNP's priority is now dodging scrutiny over how it spent more than £600,000 of donations supposedly "ring-fenced" for a future independence referendum campaign. She accused the party of "cant" over its promotion of early release for prisoners serving sentences under four years for non-violent offences.
"I take quite a strong view on justice issues and how you deal with criminal behaviour. The SNP says it's very progressive, and doesn't believe in short-term sentences," Lamont said. "All of a sudden, when they have a criminal at their own door, they want to lock him up, throw away the key, and don't ask why the guy behaved like that. Because that is the intriguing question. I don't understand it."
Political implications of the Murrell scandal
Nationalist and Green MSPs previously blocked a Holyrood inquiry that could have examined how the SNP's weak internal governance allowed such a wide-ranging crime to occur while the party ran the Scottish Government. Lamont claimed the impetus to shut down the argument on SNP finances was about the money raised for the referendum, and the by-product was that they weren't looking at their own funding.
"I have no doubt the impetus to shut down the argument on the finances of the SNP was about the money they raised for the referendum. And the by-product of that was they weren't looking at their own funding. And they are now in a bind, I think," she said.
Lamont on SNP's independence focus
Lamont welcomed First Minister John Swinney's recent claim that "everything" the SNP does is about promoting independence. "Thank you for saying that John, because we've been saying your lack of seriousness in Government for the last 19 years is because everything you do is about whether it promotes independence or not - so good public policy suddenly gets side-lined because it only gets done if it advances the cause," she said.
Asked whether the Murrell scandal had damaged the party, Lamont added: "I do think that has got through to people, that there is something very dodgy and shifty going on here. You could say, yes, Peter Murrell was stealing from SNP members. But the SNP were reassigning monies from people who were donating in a genuine belief it was going to be for a referendum."
Reaction to Nicola Sturgeon's claims
On former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's claim that she did not see the campervan purchased by her estranged husband Murrell, Lamont said: "I've got very poor eyesight but I like to think I would have spotted it. I would be utterly astonished if my husband came home with fancy pepper pots." She added that Sturgeon is in a difficult place because she used her power to close down the argument rather than open it up, calling it a "lack of curiosity" troubling in someone with a lot of power.
