Nicola Sturgeon’s husband has loaned the SNP more than £100,000 to help the party tackle “cash flow” problems, it has emerged.
Peter Murrell, who is also chief executive of the SNP, loaned his party £107,620 in May 2021, two weeks after the Scottish Parliament elections, Electoral Commission documents show.
The Guardian was not made aware of the loan until August this year, with the SNP initially claiming it did not believe it should have disclosed details of the arrangement.
Party accounts have so far disclosed only that a loan was given by the “executive leadership”.
Scotland’s governing party has been urged to “come clean” about the “murky” role Mr Murrell, who married Ms Sturgeon in 2010, played in the SNP.
Of the loan, £47,620 was repaid in two installments in August 2021 and the following October, meaning a £60,000 initial interest-free balance remains outstanding, according to the latest public disclosures.
The Scottish Tories described the arrangement as “highly unusual” and called on the SNP to provide a detailed explanation as to why the party leader’s husband was personally lending money to the SNP.
A separate police investigation is ongoing into whether £600,000 in donations, which were solicited from independence supporters for a referendum that never took place, were misused by the SNP.
“Lack of financial transparency”
“The role played by Peter Murrell in the SNP is getting darker by the day,” said Craig Hoy, chairman of the Scottish Tories. “It is extremely strange that the chief executive of the SNP – and Nicola Sturgeon’s husband – is lending his employer a six-figure sum of money.”
He added: “This highly unusual move comes in addition to an ongoing police investigation into the ‘missing’ £600k in donations. This money was supposed to be earmarked for another indyref campaign, but a series of people have left senior positions in the party, citing a lack of financial transparency.
“It’s about time the SNP admitted to its own members what is really going on and explained why their chief executive is lending so heavily to the party led by his wife.”
In May last year, Douglas Chapman, the MP who was elected by members to be the SNP’s national treasurer, quit the internal role, claiming he had not received the financial information to enable him to carry out the job.
Senior SNP MP Joanna Cherry, one of Ms Sturgeon’s fiercest critics in the party, also resigned from the party’s ruling National Executive shortly afterwards, saying she had been prevented from fulfilling her mandate to “improve transparency and control’.
Regarding Mr Murrell’s loan, an SNP spokesman said: “The loan was reported in our 2021 accounts, which were published by the Electoral Commission in mid-August.
“The nature of this transaction was not initially considered to give rise to a reporting obligation. However, as it was recorded in the party’s 2021 accounts as a loan, it was subsequently reported to the Electoral Commission as a regulated transaction.
“This was a personal contribution from the chief executive to help cash flow after the Holyrood election.”
Losing your “iron grip”
The SNP spent almost £1.5 million on last year’s election, where it won 64 of the 129 Holyrood seats, with Ms Sturgeon retaining her position as First Minister.
Mr Murrell’s salary as at May 2022 was £79,750 per annum. Ms Sturgeon is entitled to a salary of £163,229, although she only takes £135,605 under the voluntary pay freeze for Scottish ministers, which has been in place since 2009.
Questions have been repeatedly raised about the appropriateness of a party leader being married to the chief executive, with Mr Murrell and Ms Sturgeon sharing a home in Glasgow.
There is widespread speculation that Ms Sturgeon is losing her “iron grip” on the SNP, which she has led since 2014.
Ian Blackford, a loyalist, was recently ousted as Westminster leader and replaced by Stephen Flynn, who defeated a candidate believed to be the First Minister’s favourite.
Regarding the investigation into the SNP’s donation receipts, a Police Scotland spokesman said: “A report outlining the investigations already undertaken and requesting further instructions has been submitted to the Crown and Procurator Fiscal Office. We are working closely with COPFS as the investigation continues.”
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