Westminster asks Holyrood about joint inquiry into SNP Murrell scandal

Holyrood may have voted against an inquiry into the SNP’s former chief executive but the Scottish Affairs Committee in Westminster is still trying to figure out whether it should conduct a probe into how Peter Murrell managed to embezzle more than £400,000 from his party.

On Tuesday, the Scottish Affairs Committee agreed that its chair, Labour MP Patricia Ferguson, should write to Holyrood committee conveners in a bid to work together to investigate former first minister Nicola Sturgeon’s estranged husband.

The Scottish Affairs Committee has also spoken with the Electoral Commission and the Clerk of the House of Commons as it decides whether it should take action on the Murrell case – given questions remain about how he was able to get away with embezzlement over a period of 12 years, between 2010 and 2022.

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The Electoral Commission set out details of how it safeguards public funds, and states that during the time Murrell was embezzling from the party, the SNP received £2,248,353 in policy development grants.

“For the years they were in receipt of monies, the Scottish National Party provided reports to the Commission on their use of the policy development grants, which were independently audited,” the Electoral Commission said.

“We checked the reports for compliance with the requirements of the policy development grant scheme, while looking to auditors to verify accuracy and the police for enforcement of financial criminal offences. In this case, the offences of fraud were duly investigated by the police, with our full support.

“The evidence shows that the party spent its policy development grants on eligible costs, mostly staff salaries, which we can see were paid.

“We have seen no evidence of misuse of policy development grant funds by the SNP in our annual compliance checks.”

The Commission said that it is continuing to work with the SNP to review past accounts and disclosures in the wake of the Murrell scandal.

The Clerk of the Commons, Tom Goldsmith, wrote to the Scottish Affairs Committee to lay out the amount of short money (funding for opposition parties) the SNP received.

He said that “no concerns have been raised with” him regarding misuse of funds and that he has “no reason to believe there are systemic weaknesses in the system”.

Murrell has been jailed for five years and three months and the decision on what comes next rests with Holyrood – again.

Will committees decide that the scandal is big enough to warrant a probe into how party funds were misused? Or will politicians opt to close this chapter?