Former Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon has been accused of showing a "remarkable lack of curiosity" over the Scottish National Party's finances, as a former MP claimed that those seeking answers were deliberately obstructed by the party hierarchy.
Joanna Cherry's Allegations
Joanna Cherry KC, a former high-profile member of the SNP group at Westminster, was elected to the party's national executive committee with a mandate from members to investigate what had happened to hundreds of thousands of pounds donated to the party for Scottish independence campaigning. A police investigation into those funds culminated with former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, Sturgeon's estranged husband, pleading guilty to embezzling approximately £400,000 from the party.
Cherry, who is no longer an SNP member, is now calling for an independent investigation by the party, noting that some of the cash received constitutes public funds. The SNP relies on donations from members and independence supporters, but it also receives short money at Westminster—public funds allocated to opposition parties.
"I would like to see a properly independent inquiry into how this was allowed to happen and in particular why the efforts of those of us who were elected to get to the bottom of the party's governance and financial mismanagement were frustrated from doing so," Cherry told BBC Radio Scotland's Breakfast programme.
Murrell's Guilty Plea
Murrell, 61, pleaded guilty on Monday to embezzling a total of £400,310.65 from the SNP between August 2010 and October 2022. The funds were used to purchase a motorhome, luxury goods, two cars, designer kitchenware, multiple pairs of shoes, expensive pens, and a £1,200 space telescope.
Sturgeon has stated she had "no knowledge or suspicion whatsoever that personal items had been purchased using SNP funds." In a statement released through lawyer Aamer Anwar, she said she and Murrell had separate bank accounts and she had no access to his financial records. "In relation to many of the items in question, for example expensive watches and games consoles, I was not aware of them having been purchased at all," she said. She added that they were both earning high salaries and she had no reason to doubt that Murrell used his own money for purchases she was aware of. She also emphasized that she was "cleared of any wrongdoing after a lengthy and thorough investigation" by Police Scotland.
Political Reactions
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said: "You would need to be a particularly gullible member of Nicola Sturgeon's fan club to swallow her preposterous protestations of ignorance about her husband's criminal racket."
Cherry countered: "Nicola Sturgeon is very keen to paint herself as the victim here and to underline she is not guilty of any criminality. But what she is guilty of is a remarkable lack of curiosity and deliberate frustration of the attempts of those of us who were curious."
Cherry elaborated: "My issue is not so much whether she knew what was going on, my issue is why did she frustrate the attempts of those of us who were elected to do the job of financial scrutiny within the party?" She recounted that members of the SNP's finance and audit committee found Peter Murrell refused to show them the books, while she and other national executive committee members "found any questions we asked were met with a brick wall." Instead of facilitating their work, they were accused of causing trouble and being traitors to the party.
Cherry noted she was sacked from the SNP's frontbench team at Westminster in 2021 for "unacceptable behaviour," adding: "Some of that unacceptable behaviour was the fact that I was asking questions behind the scenes about how the party was being managed, and in particular about how the party's finances were being managed."
SNP leader and Scottish First Minister John Swinney has apologized to those affected by Murrell's crimes, stating the money was "stolen" from the party and accusing the former chief executive of "whole-scale deception." He added that the party had been "badly, badly, badly let down" by Murrell, whose guilty plea was "an admission of a terrible breach of trust and an overwhelming betrayal."
