Nicola Sturgeon has described her husband’s arrest as her “worst nightmare” and said it played no part in the decision to stand down as Scottish National party leader.
The former first minister said the three weeks since Peter Murrell’s arrest at their home in Glasgow had been “traumatic” and “very difficult”, in her first public statement since the police raid.
Speaking to reporters at Holyrood, Sturgeon said: “I understand the view that some people might have, that I knew this was all about to unfold and that’s why I walked away. Nothing could be further from the truth. I could not have anticipated in my worst nightmares what would have unfolded over the past few weeks.”
Three weeks ago Murrell, who had recently quit as the SNP’s chief executive, was arrested “as a suspect” and questioned for nearly 12 hours by detectives investigating allegations the party had mishandled more than £600,000 in donations.
Soon afterwards the SNP’s headquarters in Edinburgh were raided by police, with numerous boxes of documents and computers taken away.
Murrell was released later that day without charge, pending further inquiries, but 13 days later the party’s then treasurer, Colin Beattie, was also arrested before being released pending further inquiries.
Flanked by her former deputy John Swinney, Sturgeon said she had no prior knowledge of the police raid and said she had not been interviewed by police. She said her decision in February to quit suddenly was based entirely on the reasons she gave then: that after eight years in charge, she was exhausted and believed the party needed fresh leadership.
She refused, however, to discuss the police investigation, including its seizure of a luxury motorhome bought by the SNP in early 2021, from outside Murrell’s mother’s home in Fife the day he was arrested. “I’m not going to get into any aspect of the police investigation,” she said. “One of the frustrating things just now, and I’m not complaining about this, [is] I’m not able to give my version of what is under way.”
Meanwhile, the wider row over the party’s inability to find new auditors to approve its accounts escalated after Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s Westminster leader, denied claims from his predecessor Ian Blackford that he knew they had no auditors in place.
It emerged for the first time earlier this month that Johnston Carmichael, the party’s auditors for 10 years, had quit last September – a fact the party’s national executive committee and its new leader, Humza Yousaf, said they were unaware of.
Flynn, who became Westminster leader in December, told an audience at the Institute for Government in London he first learned they had quit when he saw media reports this month. He said he hoped new auditors would be in place before an accounts deadline of 31 May but said he could not give a categorical assurance that would be the case.
He confirmed SNP staff could be laid off if that deadline was missed. This is because the Commons will no longer pay Short money, the state funds given to political parties at Westminster, if there are no audited accounts to show that money is being properly spent.
