When historians of Scottish politics come to consider May 2026, two dates will stand out. On May 7, the SNP won almost half of the seats in the Scottish parliamentary election. If its minority administration makes it through the term, the party will have effectively been the government at Holyrood for 24 years.
And then on May 25, the SNP’s former chief executive, Peter Murrell, was remanded in custody after pleading guilty to embezzling £400,000 from funds largely donated by party supporters – all of it while married to the SNP’s longstanding leader Nicola Sturgeon. Sturgeon has consistently denied any knowledge of Murrell’s crimes and was not charged after a police investigation. Murrell will be sentenced in June.
