THE man who took over from Peter Murrell as chief executive of the SNP has said there are two unanswered questions about his predecessor's embezzlement, including: “Did Nicola know?”
However, Murray Foote, the former Daily Record editor and architect of "The Vow" who became SNP chief executive after Murrell’s resignation, said he believed that the former first minister “did not know” about her estranged husband’s crimes.
Foote made the remarks in an article for The Courier on Thursday, where he said he was “relieved” he had not been called to testify in any trial.
On Monday, Murrell pleaded guilty to embezzling more than £400,000 from the SNP over 12 years, from 2010 to 2022. He had resigned as party chief executive in 2023 amid a row over membership numbers.
Foote had resigned as SNP communications chief amid the same membership row, returning to the party some five months later as its new chief executive in Murrell’s place.
In The Courier, Foote wrote: “We still have many unanswered questions, and two in particular puzzle me. The first: What on earth possessed him to so catastrophically undermine every cornerstone of his life?”
“Now the world has learned he was simultaneously betraying all three loves of his life: party, cause and wife.”
He went on: “When the fraud investigation first launched in July 2021, many in the party machine considered it a spurious complaint. And on that they were correct.
“Regardless of how many blue tents were deployed, police found no evidence of fraud because no fraud was committed. The rules set out by the Electoral Commission watchdog have always been clear: it is entirely at the discretion of political parties how to spend money donated to them.
“Yet Murrell was very downbeat about the probe. At the time, I believed he was simply concerned by negative publicity. I now know better.
“When the investigation started, you’d have thought Murrell would recognise the gig was up. But, clearly no master criminal, he brazenly continued pilfering for another 15 months.”
Foote added: “The second unanswered question is: Did Nicola know? I think it’s perfectly reasonable to believe she did. I also think it’s perfectly reasonable to believe she didn’t.
“Nicola will have never clapped eyes on many of the extravagant baubles on the list of embezzled goods. Those in the ‘of course she knew’ camp will argue it was impossible for her not to notice some of the others – the jewellery, the Montblanc pens, the Lalique pepper pot, the robo-lawnmower, the £90k Jag.
“Of course, she noticed them. She wore the jewellery, signed documents with a Montblanc, cracked pepper on her soup, was driven in the Jag and probably dodged the robo-mower in the garden.
“What is relevant here is if she had either the time or inclination to ask Peter how they were financed.”
The former SNP chief executive went on: “I find it implausible she would jeopardise everything by covering for her husband on the take for 12 years, hoarding what is largely an inventory of luxury trinkets. It doesn’t make sense.
“And what of her now infamous intervention during an online SNP meeting when she told the party’s National Executive Committee there was nothing amiss with the party finances?
“Is it not plausible she was misled by her husband, and her intervention was a genuine attempt to limit the remorseless negative publicity around Operation Branchform?”
He concluded: “I suspect your take on whether Nicola knew or didn’t know will be closely aligned to your wider political opinions. That’s your legitimate choice.
“Personally, I believe she did not know. But then I was very wrong about Peter Murrell.”
Foote resigned as chief executive of the SNP in October 2024, saying he could not commit to the party through the 2026 elections.
In September 2025, former MP Callum McCaig was confirmed as the new SNP chief executive.
