A LABOUR bid for a Scottish Parliament inquiry into the Peter Murrell embezzlement scandal has failed after MSPs backed an inquiry into ALL political parties instead.
On Wednesday, MSPs debated Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s motion which called for Holyrood to “conduct an inquiry into the implications and lessons to be learned following the conclusion of Operation Branchform and the embezzlement conviction of Peter Murrell”.
Murrell, the estranged husband of Nicola Sturgeon, is due to be sentenced later this month for embezzling more than £400,000 from the party.
Opposition politicians have repeatedly called for a probe into the scandal, which have been rejected by First Minister John Swinney who said “there is no higher standard of investigation than that undertaken by the police.
The Scottish Affairs Committee in Westminster had deferred deciding on whether or not it would hold its own inquiry, until Holyrood voted on Labour's motion.
The Scottish Greens amendment calling for an independent inquiry into all political party finances passed, with 70 MSPs voting in favour, and 53 against.
Scottish Labour’s motion was passed as amended, by 71 votes for yes, and 50 for no. It was stripped of its original intent.
The Scottish Government's bid to block an inquiry failed after it was not agreed, with 55 MSPs voting in favour and 68 against.
After the vote, Scottish Greens co-leader Ross Greer said: “I am glad that Parliament supported our call for an independent investigation into party political finances.
“At a time when billionaires and bad faith actors are trying to buy political influence and corrupt our politics, it is important that every political party is held to high standards of financial transparency.
“Westminster has refused to act because the major parties there are bankrolled by the super rich. That’s why our proposals include a call for the power to regulate political parties in Scotland to be transferred to the Scottish Parliament."
The Greens motion called for an independent review led by a neutral figure, instead of a parliamentary inquiry by MSPs.
Opening the debate, Sarwar urged the SNP to support his motion and “confront” the culture that enabled Murrell to commit his crimes, arguing that it would not be a repeat of Operation Branchform but will answer “legitimate questions” that go beyond how the party operates internally.
“I say to the SNP, if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear,” Sarwar said.
He later would suggest that Murrell’s embezzlement was the “greatest political scandal since devolution” in Scotland.
When Greer intervened to raise the charges levied against former Scottish Labour MSP Colin Smyth, Sarwar said that was about “individual actions”.
He then accused Greer of wanting to be a “human shield for John Swinney”.
Sarwar also took aim at Community Safety Minister Kirsten Oswald, for “blocking scrutiny” of the SNP’s finances when she was business convener for the party, and Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Sommerville, who previously served as Murrell’s deputy.
He accused the SNP of “muddying the waters” with their amendment, later telling MSPs: “How the SNP votes on this motion will show if the culture in the SNP that allowed Murrell to commit his crimes has changed or if it stays the same.”
Responding for the SNP, Minister for Parliamentary Business Jamie Hepburn said: “We are being asked to agree to conduct an inquiry, presumably by the convening of a parliamentary committee comprised of elected representatives of competing political parties to scrutinise the internal financial operations of one of those competing political parties.
“Every single member who can sit on such a committee has a direct material interest in the outcome of its findings.”
Hepburn argued that there are “various conflicts of interests” in parties investigating each other.
However, it was another SNP MSPs contribution that caused the most outrage from MSPs on the Scottish Labour and Tory benches.
Aberdeen Central MSP Jack Middleton accused Sarwar of trying to “cosplay as Columbo” and said the Scottish Labour leader’s ego was “inflating faster than a hot air balloon”.
Middleton used his time to explore a “catalogue of scandals from within the Labour Party”, with particular focus on disgraced peer Peter Mandelson, branding him Sarwar’s “chum”, and the hundreds of thousands of pounds of donations Scottish Labour took from “shadowy think tank” Labour Together.
Challenging Scottish Labour MSPs to say that none of the donations were used during their election campaign, when none spoke up Middleton said: “The silence is deafening.”
When Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay began heckling, he added: “I’m sure Anas will buy you a pint later on for helping the Better Together chums.”
Greer told MSPs: “Two things can be true here; the SNP were the victims of a crime, but the SNP's internal governance processes and culture also failed.
“The crime was a matter for the police and the prosecution service. They have done their job.
“The SNPs internal governance arrangements are for them. If I was a member of the SNP, I would demand a root and branch review, but I am not.”
Scottish Tory leader Findlay suggested that the culture in the SNP had parallels with organised crime.
He accused the First Minister of preaching “transparency, candour, and respect, yet he practises secrecy, dishonesty, and disrespect”.
Findlay added: “He pontificates about misinformation while his party runs a breathtaking campaign of misinformation about renewable energy. They reckon they'll get away with it because they always do, and the Greens amendment seeks to help the SNP by muddying the waters and diverting attention.”
Willie Rennie, Scottish LibDem MSP, said that the SNP are in “more serious trouble than we actually thought” after an exchange with SNP MSP Alan Brown, claiming that “the party's first reaction to any criticism of their internal affairs is to throw the muck around to blame everybody else”.
Brown had raised the £2.4 million the LibDems accepted from Scottish businessman Michael Brown in 2005. The funds turned out to be stolen, but the party kept the donation as they had accepted it in "good faith".
