Nicola Sturgeon has said she feels as if she is serving a sentence for a crime she did not commit, as she denied ever consciously seeing the motor home bought by her estranged husband with money embezzled from the Scottish National Party (SNP). In her first media interview since Peter Murrell pleaded guilty to embezzling more than £400,000 from the party, the former first minister said the luxury camper was parked 'round the side' of her mother-in-law's house and had been recorded in the party's accounts as 'motor vehicles', so its purchase had not raised alarm bells.
Sturgeon, 55, has consistently denied knowledge of Murrell's crimes, which spanned more than a decade between 2010 and 2022, and was not charged after a police investigation. However, she has faced a sceptical Scottish public after it emerged Murrell, 61, spent the money on items including a motor home, a Jaguar SUV and a VW Golf, boutique cosmetics, iPads and a pair of Lalique Feuilles salt and pepper grinders worth £2,618.
Speaking to BBC One's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Sturgeon said she had visited her mother-in-law's home 'less than a handful of times' over the two-year period the motor home was parked on the driveway, and denied she had walked past it to enter the house. 'I genuinely have no conscious memory of seeing that motor home. If I saw it, I would probably have assumed it was the neighbour's,' she said.
Sturgeon also denied that whistleblowers were blocked from flagging concerns, saying their concern had been on funds raised to fight a second independence referendum instead. She said that until early 2023, there was no suggestion that potential embezzlement was being investigated, and that the issue was whether £600,000 raised for a second independence referendum had been used for election campaigning.
Sturgeon said she was not going to apologise for someone else's crimes. 'I will take responsibility for the things I do, the decisions I make. I'm sitting here with you right now, answering questions because I believe strongly in that accountability. But I am not responsible for the crimes that my former husband committed and I'm not going to apologise for somebody else's crimes,' she added.
