POLICE Scotland have denied that their investigation into SNP finances “stepped up dramatically” after an intervention from former prime minister Gordon Brown.
The Sunday Mail reported that Brown, a close friend of former Chief Constable Iain Livingstone, was taking a “very keen interest” in Operation Branchform, and raised the issue with him.
Sources told the newspaper that after the senior Unionist campaigner's intervention, Operation Branchform kicked up a notch, with properties being raided and witness interviews taking place.
The report says Brown spoke to Livingstone in early 2023. At that point, Operation Branchform had been going on for around 18 months, but was taking place in the background. The investigation first focused on claims from campaigners that £666,953 raised as part of a ring-fenced independence referendum fund had been spent on other activities.
Weeks after Brown’s conversation with Livingstone, senior figures in the party had been interviewed by police – and by April, former SNP CEO Peter Murrell, Nicola Sturgeon’s estranged husband, had been arrested, with their home and SNP HQ raided by police.
This year, Murrell was jailed for more than five years after it emerged he had embezzled more than £400,000 from the party.
One source told the Sunday Mail: “Brown raised the investigation with Livingstone a number of times, they have a good friendly relationship.
“There is no suggestion that Gordon was attempting to influence the Chief Constable in relation to a live investigation but nonetheless he was taking a very keen interest.
“It was after this that the investigation appeared to dramatically step up with witness interviews and properties being raided in the months that followed.”
Around the time Brown spoke to the Chief Constable, his wife Sarah had been extremely critical of Police Scotland’s decision to charge their friend Dame Ann Gloag with human trafficking offences. Those charges were dropped in 2024.
The Mail reported another source as saying: “It’s not a secret that the Browns were not happy that Gloag was being targeted and that they might have wondered why she was feeling the full force of the law while Sturgeon and Murrell at that time appeared not to be.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “The investigation was carried out without fear or favour, or any political interference, and any suggestion otherwise is inaccurate.”
Police Scotland denied the accuracy of the story in the Sunday Mail.
