DONATIONS to the SNP increased in the week Peter Murrell admitted embezzling more than £400,000 of members’ cash, the party has said.
Sharing the results of a new poll which put the SNP on 34%, up five points, from The Times, the party’s head of digital Ross Colquhoun, said in a Twitter/X post: “Donations also increased last week to the SNP.”
Other SNP insiders have reported a bounce in the week where the party’s former chief executive pleaded guilty to defrauding the party to “bankroll the lavish lifestyle he craved”.
One source told the Sunday Telegraph that the SNP had received money worth “several thousand” and said it showed supporters still had faith in the party despite Murrell’s “betrayal”.
A party insider said: “Since Monday, we’ve had a significant uptick in donations from ordinary SNP members. Donations totalling into several thousand.
“SNP members and the party have been the victim of an appalling betrayal and theft, but clearly folk retain that resolve to deliver independence and put faith in the only party that can deliver it.
“Our opposition wants this to be all about them. They want the crimes that Peter Murrell committed to be about themselves when it is about ordinary SNP members who paid their dues and were betrayed.
“Clearly the strength of support for the party demonstrates that whilst SNP members are deeply betrayed by Murrell’s crimes, it will not diminish the depth of their belief and commitment to the cause of independence and to the party of independence – the SNP.”
It comes as Nicola Sturgeon revealed how she felt she was “serving a sentence for a crime I did not commit” as she insisted she was unaware of Murrell’s crimes during their time at the top of the SNP.
In her first TV interview since Murrell’s guilty plea at Edinburgh High Court earlier this week, the former first minister said: “Am I angry with him? I don’t even think that begins to cover it.”
