Nicola Sturgeon's husband Peter Murrell charged with embezzlement of SNP funds

Former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell has been charged in connection with embezzlement of SNP funds following a Police Scotland investigation.

Mr Murrell, husband of Nicola Sturgeon, was taken into custody for questioning at 9.13am on Thursday, more than a year after his first arrest.

The developments sent shockwaves through British politics and plunged the Scottish National Party, now led by Humza Yousaf into deeper crisis.

The SNP’s woes are likely to make it easier for Labour to gain more seats in Scotland for the Westminster Parliament and for Sir Keir Starmer to get a Commons majority at the general election, expected to take place in the autumn.

Police confirmed on Thursday evening that Mr Murrell had been charged in connection with their investigation into SNP finances.

Police Scotland said: “A 59 year old man has Thursday, 18 April, 2024, been charged in connection with the embezzlement of funds from the Scottish National Party.

“The man, who was arrested at 9.13am today and had previously been arrested as a suspect on 5 April, 2023, was charged at 6.35pm after further questioning by Police Scotland detectives investigating the funding and finances of the party.

“A report will be sent to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in due course. The man is no longer in police custody.

“As this investigation is ongoing we are unable to comment further.”

It follows a probe known as Operation Branchform into the spending of more than £600,000 in donations for independence campaigning.

Mr Murrell resigned as the party’s chief executive – a role he held for more than 20 years – during the leadership campaign in March 2023.

He has been married to Ms Sturgeon since 2010.

Ms Sturgeon, who resigned as first minister and SNP leader in February 2023, was arrested two months after her husband, while the former party treasurer Colin Beattie was also arrested.

Both Ms Sturgeon and Mr Beattie were released without charge pending further investigation.

A blue forensic tent was erected in Ms Sturgeon and Mr Murrell’s garden last year as part of the investigation, and the SNP headquarters in Edinburgh was also searched.

Police searched the home of Nicola Sturgeon and her husband Peter Murrell last year (PA Archive)

Police also seized a camper van from outside the Fife home of Mr Murrell’s mother.

Following Ms Sturgeon’s arrest in June 2023, she insisted she had “done nothing wrong”.

The husband and wife team

For years Peter Murrell was one half of the husband and wife team that took the SNP to success in election after election.

He served as chief executive of the party for more than two decades, holding the post from 1999 until he stepped down in 2023.

His wife, Nicola Sturgeon, meanwhile rose to become its leader, and in 2014 was appointed Scotland’s first ever female first minister.

The couple met through their work with the SNP in the late 1980s, and were first announced to be in a relationship in early 2003.

They married in 2010 in Glasgow, while Ms Sturgeon was deputy leader of the party and serving as the Scottish Government’s health secretary.

File photo dated 16/7/2010 of the then Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon with husband Peter Murrell following their wedding service at the Oran Mor in Glasgow (PA Wire)

Prior to taking on the chief executive’s job in 1999 – the year of the first ever Holyrood elections –  Murrell had worked in the constituency office of Alex Salmond, the then leader of the SNP.

The former top official was regarded by many as having played a key role in transforming the party’s fortunes, helping to modernise SNP operations.

The party has become the dominant force in Scottish politics, seizing power at Holyrood in 2007 and winning every election since then.

While membership has fallen from the peak of about 125,000 achieved in 2018, it remains the largest political party north of the border.

However after over eight years in the top job, Ms Sturgeon, who was at the time Scotland’s longest serving first minister, announced in February 2023 she was stepping down from the post and as SNP leader.

Murrell then quit as party chief executive the following month during the contest to replace her.

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