Sturgeon showed 'remarkable lack of curiosity' over SNP finances, says former MP

A former SNP MP has called for an independent inquiry into how former chief executive Peter Murrell was able to embezzle more than £400,000.

Joanna Cherry also accused former first minister Nicola Sturgeon - Murrell's estranged wife - of having shown "a remarkable lack of curiosity" over concerns regarding party finances.

She told BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast that she wanted answers about why efforts to investigate allegations of financial mismanagement were "frustrated" by party chiefs.

Sturgeon – who was arrested as part of the police investigation into SNP finances but later told she would face no further action – said she had "no knowledge or suspicion whatsoever" about Murrell's crime.

Cherry resigned from the SNP's ruling body in 2021 due to concerns about transparency.

She said: "I would like to see a properly independent inquiry into how this was allowed to happen and in particular into 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, and frustrated from doing so in pretty unpleasant circumstances."

She told the BBC: "It wasn't just that we didn't get an answer to our questions - we were demonised for asking the questions and one by one we all resigned from the national executive committee.

"There just seemed to be a remarkable lack of curiosity on the part of Nicola Sturgeon and other members of the national executive committee at that time - some of whom are now members of the Scottish Parliament and I think they have questions to answer as well."

Cherry said she had first raised concerns in 2019 over money that had been donated to a ring-fenced fund that had been set up by the SNP to raise money for a second independence referendum.

She said the fund, amounting to about £600,000, "appeared to have been spent on other things".

The former MP said she and a number of colleagues had stood for election to senior positions within the SNP "on a specific manifesto of getting to the bottom of what had happened to that money and also improving the internal governance of the party".

"Nicola Sturgeon ran that party with a rod of iron, hand and glove with her husband," she said.

"There was very little transparency and those of us who asked questions were treated as traitors to the party."

Cherry claimed her colleagues on the finance and audit committee found that Murrell was "refusing to show them the books", while questions asked by the national executive committee were met with a "brick wall".

Cherry was sacked from the SNP's frontbench team at Westminster in 2021 for "unacceptable behaviour" and said some of that related to her questions about party finances.

The former MP told the BBC: "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 said: "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?"

Cherry's call for an investigation comes after Murrell, 61, pleaded guilty on Monday to embezzling a total of £400,310.65 from the SNP between August 2010 and October 2022.

The cash was used to buy a range of items, including a motorhome, various luxury goods and two cars.

Other purchases included designer kitchenware, multiple pairs of shoes, expensive pens and a £1,200 space telescope.

He is due to be sentenced in June.

Sturgeon said she had "no knowledge or suspicion whatsoever that personal items had been purchased using SNP funds".

In a statement released through lawyer Aamer Anwar, the former first minister said she and her estranged husband had separate bank accounts and that 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.

Adding that she and Murrell were "both earning high salaries", Sturgeon said: "In respect of any items I was aware of Peter having purchased, I had no reason to doubt that he had used his own money."

SNP leader and Scottish First Minister John Swinney apologised to those affected by Murrell's crimes, saying on Monday that the money had been "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 its former chief executive, and said Murrell's guilty plea was "an admission of a terrible breach of trust and an overwhelming betrayal".

Asked on Tuesday if Cherry was owed an apology, Swinney did not directly answer the question.

He said the party was dealing with "very, very difficult matters inspired by criminal conduct", which he described as "wholly and completely unacceptable".

The first minister said he was "not conscious" of having shut down concerns about party finances after they were raised by members.

Earlier, Sir Keir Starmer said Swinney had questions to answer about Murrell's crime.

The prime minister told reporters: "I think anybody looking at what's happening up in Scotland will be baffled that those at the top of the SNP say they didn't know anything about what was going on."

Swinney replied: "I don't really think I'll be listening much to what Keir Starmer says to me about anything."

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."

The SNP's former national treasurer, Colin Beattie, was also arrested as part of the police investigation. Like Sturgeon, he faced no further action.

Beattie said Murrell went to "extreme criminal lengths" to cover his tracks and told journalists at Holyrood that he felt "utterly appalled" and "genuinely hurt" by the former chief executive's actions.

Asked if he should have spotted financial issues, Beattie said the police had acknowledged that Murrell had covered up his embezzlement.

It was pointed out that other party officials had raised concerns about transparency, but Beattie refused to make any further comment.

Asked to respond to claims that she had suppressed debate about SNP finances, former SNP chair Kirsten Oswald said Swinney "spoke for all of us" when he described his shock, disappointment and devastation on Monday.

She said the police investigation had looked very carefully into the issue and it was very clear where the wrongdoing lay.