THERE was a “fundamental flaw” in having Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell in top positions in the SNP, Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney has said.
Swinney said that he did not raise concerns at the time because he thought arrangements were well managed but that it is now “very clear” there was a flaw, after Murrell this week admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from the SNP.
The First Minister also said that he had not spoken to former SNP MP Joanna Cherry and former SNP treasurer Douglas Chapman who resigned from the party’s ruling body in 2021, citing concerns about transparency.
Murrell – the estranged husband of former Scottish first minister Sturgeon – this week pleaded guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh to embezzling £400,310.65 from the SNP between 2010 and 2022.
Sturgeon was Scotland’s first minister from 2014 to 2023 while Murrell served as the SNP chief executive from 2001 to 2023.
In an interview on BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show, Swinney was asked whether he ever raised concerns that a husband and wife were at the very top of the party.
He said: “I didn’t raise those concerns because I thought the arrangements were well managed by the arrangements that were in place of having a business convener in the party and the National Executive Committee that carried out that accountability.
“But it’s very clear from the experience we’re all having to come to terms with this week that there was a fundamental flaw in those arrangements, and we have to confront that.”
Earlier this week Sturgeon herself admitted that it was a “misjudgment” to keep her then-husband in the post of chief executive.
Speaking at the Hay Festival in Wales, she said her predecessor, the late Alex Salmond, had urged her not to continue keeping Murrell in post.
“Definitely, with the benefit of hindsight, that probably was a decision I wish I’d taken differently,” she said, saying she did not think it was fair for Murrell to lose his job when she became leader.
She has also said that she was lied to by Murrell and that she herself was “completely cleared and exonerated” by police.
In the BBC interview on Sunday, Swinney was also asked whether he has spoken to Cherry and Chapman.
He said: “I haven’t done that, no, because what I’ve got to do is serve my party and to make sure that I take forward improvements in the governance that are taking place, so that we have the highest standards of governance.”
The SNP has faced calls for an independent inquiry into its finances which have been dismissed by Swinney.
Shadow Scottish secretary Andrew Bowie has called for a Westminster committee to investigate the “wider institutional questions” arising from the Murrell case.
Swinney previously insisted a parliamentary inquiry will not add anything to the “five-year forensic police investigation” that has already been carried out.
On Sunday he told the BBC: “We know what happened, and you can’t actually get a standard of investigation any higher in Scotland than a forensic police investigation that results in a successful High Court prosecution and a guilty plea. So we know what happened.”
Murrell will be sentenced next month.
Cherry, who is no longer a member of the SNP, told the Sunday Show that she left the SNP because she became “ashamed” to be a member but that she would consider rejoining if the party had a new leader.
She said she is owed an apology and feels she was “treated appallingly because of daring to ask legitimate questions”.
Cherry said: “The SNP will not progress as a party of government or as the leader of the independence movement until it addresses what went wrong during the Sturgeon years.
“In my opinion, what’s come to light over the last week is the tip of the iceberg of a culture of secrecy and mismanagement.”
