The SNP President who led independence campaigning from a ramshackle horse box admitted he was completely unaware the party had a luxury campervan that he could have used.
Veteran politician Mike Russell was given the job of heading up an ‘independence unit’ by Nicola Sturgeon in summer 2021 and promised a £600,000 budget. But Russell and fellow activists raised money to buy and renovate the horse box as a ‘mobile unit’ not knowing the party had access to a £110,000 luxury campervan, now at the centre of a police fraud investigation.
Leaked minutes handed to the Sunday Mail from the National Executive Committee meeting five months after the campervan was delivered to the home of the FM’s mother-in-law, reveal how she personally asked the 69-year-old ex MSP to take charge of the campaign. The meeting took place weeks before then CEO Peter Murrell lent the party £107,000 to help with “cash flow” issues and after police launched a probe into claims £600,000 of “ring fenced” party funds were missing.
The notes said: “The budget agreed by the NEC includes funding of £600,000 for the campaign to secure independence. This will allow the early recruitment of new members of staff for the Independence Unit within HQ.
“The party leader reported that she has asked party President, Mike Russell, to be the political director of the Unit, to provide oversight and leadership of it. A work plan for the Unit, to develop and build the independence campaign over the summer will be agreed upon in the coming days.”
Russell has revealed that when he later campaigned in Argyll he knew nothing of the campervan purchase.
He said: “That was a local campaign using entirely and very effectively, local resources. It was entirely unconnected to other work I was doing.”
Asked if he was ever able to draw down funds from the budget allocated to him or hire staff, he said: “It was always clear to me that as I wished to do things, they would be done. I can’t be any more explicit than that. I had access to staff if I required.”
A source said: “There’s no suggestion Mike has done anything wrong. He’s been an dedicated campaigner for the cause of independence his entire adult life.
“But there are questions to be answered over whether he was ever actually able to draw down this £600,000 budget that he was allegedly allocated and whether any HQ staff were every specifically hired for the purpose stated. It seems odd that the funds were available despite the fact Murrell had to lend the party over £100,000 just months later to help with cash flow issues.
“It says it all that dedicated activists on Islay were diligently fundraising and working hard to convert a horse box to campaign from at a time when party HQ appears to have been out buying a luxury camper van. Party sources have said this was to be a campaign battle bus but it certainly wasn’t being deployed as one."
Russell cut the ribbon on a Islay’s Yes group’s new campaigning vehicle, describing it as a great example of the grassroots work being done. Members had raised funds to buy and renovate the horsebox into a “portable independence campaigning hub”.
Russell had said: “The mobile hub is another great example of branches out there campaigning for independence and taking the message to where people actually are.”
At the time Jim Love, vice-convenor of the Islay and Jura SNP group said they still needed to find a name for the horsebox, but it was being temporarily called the “Michael Russell Mobile Centre for Independence”. The SNP is facing the biggest crisis in its history over a police investigation into how around £600,000 of IndyRef2 donations were spent.
Murrell was arrested and released without charge after a raid on the marital home he shares with Sturgeon. As part of their investigation, police also confiscated a Niesmann + Bischoff motorhome that was parked outside the Dunfermline house of his 92-year-old mum on the same day.
A local has claimed the vehicle had not been moved since it was delivered in January 2021.
Former SNP treasurer Colin Beattie was also questioned.
A SNP source is reported to have said the motorhome had been bought during the pandemic for use in the Holyrood election campaign in the spring of 2021. But Beattie has said he wasn’t aware of the purchase until it appeared in accounts while First Minister Humza Yousaf has declined to comment on when he was made aware of the vehicle.
Scottish Conservative Chairman Craig Hoy: “Nicola Sturgeon has further serious questions to answer. Eyebrows will be raised that a mere matter of weeks of before a police investigation was launched into donations given to the SNP, Nicola Sturgeon was asking the party’s President to start this fresh push for another divisive referendum.
“The former First Minister and other senior SNP figures must comply fully with the ongoing investigation and be as transparent as possible with the public."
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