From the Scottish Daily Express
As soon as Peter Murrell pled guilty to embezzling £400k from the SNP, attention turned to what his estranged wife knew, or didn’t know, about his crimes.
He began stealing money back in 2010 and continued to do so up until 2022, with Operation Branchform launched into missing SNP money in 2021.
Ms Sturgeon has now made three statements, with the last two through her solicitor, Aamer Anwar, and each includes insinuations that she is the innocent party in all this. But what exactly has she said so far? And will she be providing more statements if fresh allegations are made?
The former First Minister took to social media to offer her initial thoughts on Murrell pleading guilty. She used her Instagram stories to place all the blame on her estranged husband who she had lived with for decades.
She insisted she had “no knowledge or suspicion whatsoever” that Murrell was “using SNP funds for personal purposes”.
She added that she was “utterly appalled” he had done so and “could not begin to understand why.” Her reaction to his guilty plea was “difficult to put into words”.
Ms Sturgeon claimed she was “angry, hurt, sad and very distressed about the impact of his actions on family, friends and the SNP.”
She added: “To be deceived and let down by a husband I loved and trusted has caused me acute pain. Why he acted as he did is, and always will be, beyond my comprehension.
“To be clear, I had no knowledge or suspicion whatsoever that he was using SNP funds for personal purposes. I am utterly appalled that he did so and cannot begin to understand why. That I was fully cleared after a thorough investigation underlines that these are not my crimes. I was misled, just as others were.”
She did accept that there would be “political discussion in the light of what has happened” but added that for her this “has also been a profound personal trauma”.
She concluded: “I need to remain focused on recovering from that and building a new phase of life. I will be making no further comment.”
But Ms Sturgeon DID make further comment, and enlisted the help of nationalist lawyer and friend of Humza Yousaf, Aamer Anwar, right.
Through him, she said: “Today the media is reporting details of items that my former husband has now admitted buying with SNP funds. I have seen questions raised about how I could not have known about this. I want to reiterate that I had no knowledge or suspicion whatsoever that personal items had been purchased using SNP funds.
“I was cleared of any wrongdoing after a lengthy and thorough investigation. In relation to many of the items in question, for example, expensive watches and games consoles, I was not aware of them having been purchased at all. Indeed, in relation to the item of largest value – a camper van – I was not aware of its existence until it featured in the police investigation in early 2023, nor was it parked in our driveway as has been claimed by some.
“In respect of any items I was aware of Peter having purchased, I had no reason to doubt that he had used his own money. We were both earning high salaries and, due to the responsibilities of my job, rarely socialized or went on holidays. We had separate bank accounts, and I had no access to his financial records.”
The SNP campervan at the centre of the Operation Branchform fraud investigation
Her camper van claim has been called into question by an eye-witness who reported that he saw Ms Sturgeon in Dunfermline Asda, where she was telling another shopper that she had family in the city.
During this timeframe, the motorhome was situated in Murrell’s elderly mother’s driveway.
Third statement
After initially claiming she wouldn’t be making any further comment, Ms Sturgeon released a THIRD statement through her solicitor, in response to media reports that she made a no comment interview when grilled by cops. This is despite her promising to “fully co-operate” with the investigation.
He went on to say that Ms Sturgeon’s “no comment” response was “standard advice offered regularly in our jurisdiction” and that it was “deeply worrying” that Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay described her “right to silence” as a “tactic of organized crime”. He added that his client later insisted on providing a “detailed written response” to Police Scotland questions.
“To make it abundantly clear, it was not the role of the First Minister to sign off accounts that was for the party treasurer. There appears to be an assumption that as FM, when Mr Murrell was busy buying multiple pens or pepper pots etc, she was with him, Ms Sturgeon was not, as unsurprisingly she was busy with other matters.”
Top of page: Nicola Sturgeon pictured with local MPs at a meeting in Westminster.