FIRST Minister John Swinney accused a Tory MSP of misleading parliament and Scottish Labour depute leader Jackie Baillie of lacking “decent respect” amid a heated Holyrood debate on the fallout from Peter Murrell’s guilty plea.
On Monday, the former SNP chief executive had admitted to embezzling £400,000 from the party over the course of 12 years, and on Tuesday, MSPs were granted an urgent question on the case in the Scottish parliament.
The Conservatives had bid to ask a question of Scotland’s Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain – who is both head of prosecutions and the government’s chief legal adviser – about the reasons Nicola Sturgeon had not been charged, but it was blocked by the Presiding Officer.
However, the Tories had a second urgent question granted, and used the debate following it to ask their rejected question anyway – something which the First Minister said was “getting into incredibly inappropriate territory”.
Scottish Tory depute leader Rachael Hamilton said: “John Swinney is desperately trying to sweep this scandal under the carpet and denied there was any problem in 2021, and that is on record. Now Peter Murrell will rightly face the full force of the law, but the public will question why the former first minister did not face investigation.”
Sturgeon was in fact investigated by police, who filed no charges against her at the conclusion of Operation Branchform.
Hamilton went on: “The Lord Advocate is responsible for all criminal prosecutions in Scotland. She sits in the SNP Cabinet. Can the First Minister tell the chamber whether the Lord Advocate will publish the reasons why the Crown Office did not pursue charges against Nicola Sturgeon?”
Swinney questioned how he could be sweeping the scandal under the carpet if he had given a 50-minute press conference on Monday and was answering MSPs questions on Tuesday, before adding that what Hamilton had suggested about the Lord Advocate was “disrespectful to the judicial system in this country”.
“It is an insult to the rule of law, and it should not be tolerated in this parliament,” he added.
Scottish Tory MSP Stephen Kerr later made a similar remark, alleging: “One of the things that sticks in the throats of a lot of people is that the trial [of Murrell] was supposed to take place before the election, but was mysteriously postponed to a date after the election.
“There is undoubtedly a political advantage to the SNP because of that postponement. So why was the hearing postponed? And who authorised the dates change of the proceedings?”
Swinney responded: “I don't know if Mr Kerr misspoke, but Mr Kerr said the trial was supposed to take place before the election. That is not a truthful statement or an accurate statement. The trial was never scheduled before the election.”
A preliminary hearing, not a trial, had been scheduled for February, but was postponed to May 25.
Swinney added: “If we start second guessing and pointing the finger – which is what Mr Kerr has just done, pointed the finger at judges exercising their judicial independence – then we are not respecting the independence of the judiciary.
“And I want to make one thing clear to this parliament, I will to my last breath defend the independence of the judiciary to decide on these issues because that is the protection for everyone in the face of the rule of law.
“It's a foundation of our society, and we should dabble with it at our peril in the fashion that Mr Kerr has dabbled with it today.”
The First Minister also had strong words for Scottish Labour MSP Baillie after she said: “A complaint was made to the police about the SNP's finances in March 2021. In May that year, John Swinney appeared on the Sunday Politics show and said he had no idea why the party's treasurer resigned.
“In June, Nicola Sturgeon said money hadn't gone missing and there was nothing to see here. I'm not sure if any of that reflects the truth.
“So can I ask, how can the public trust John Swinney when he is the man who is the architect of this culture of secrecy?”
The SNP leader responded: “The first point I want to make is this, that Jackie Baillie has on the first sitting day of a debate, questioned my integrity and my truthfulness.
“Jackie Baillie spent the best part of five years in the last parliament questioning my integrity and my truthfulness. I invite her to look at the election results and see how far it got the behaviour of the Labour Party.
“If there's anybody, if there's anybody that epitomised that whole smearing of people's characters, Jackie Baillie is at the front of the queue of the last parliament, and I would have thought she might have learned the lessons before she came in and started doing it on this occasion today.”
Swinney said that the “deception and criminality” was down to Murrell alone, adding: “Now we've taken action as a party to address these issues, and we have good and strong governance in place under my leadership, and that's what my party has a right to expect.
“But I think also there's an entitlement to expect in this parliament some decent respect for the integrity of individuals, which Jackie Baillie sadly lacked in her contribution today.”
Elsewhere, Scottish LibDem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton questioned Sturgeon’s statement that she had only learned of the SNP’s campervan in 2023, saying: “If we are to believe the narrative account of the former first minister that this was not a criminal conspiracy, then it follows that this was in fact a catastrophic failure of financial oversight.”
Swinney then responded: “I don't think it's the place of parliament to be carrying out investigations that the police have themselves carried out.
“If I was to suggest any of that, I would be breaching my commitments in the ministerial code. So if that obligation and burden is on me, then I don't see why it is not on Mr Cole-Hamilton.”
And Reform UK MSP Graham Simpson’s questions about “scrutiny” of SNP finances was rebuffed by the First Minister highlighting that “Nigel Farage is dodging accountability on a £5 million contribution made to him personally”.
“Forgive me for being a little bit sceptical about people who run into the greenhouse throwing stones around on this occasion,” the SNP leader added.
