Former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell pleads guilty to embezzling over £400,000 from the party

Peter Murrell, once one of the most powerful figures in British politics, pleaded guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh on Monday to embezzling £400,310.65 from the Scottish National Party, money he took between 2010 and 2022 to fund a lavish personal lifestyle. The former SNP chief executive admitted using the stolen funds to buy a £124,000 luxury motorhome, a Jaguar SUV and a VW Golf, boutique cosmetics, iPads and a Lalique salt and pepper set worth £2,618, among items catalogued in a 119-page indictment. He had reached a deal with prosecutors in recent weeks to plead guilty and avoid a lengthy trial.

Lord Young said Murrell, who earned £107,000 a year as chief executive, was guilty of a "gross breach of trust." Dressed in a dark blue suit and black tie, he was led away in handcuffs and remanded in custody, and will be sentenced on 23 June, when he faces a lengthy prison term.

Murrell was married to Nicola Sturgeon, the former SNP leader and first minister, at the time of the thefts. In statements on Instagram and through her lawyer, Sturgeon again denied any knowledge or suspicion of his crimes. "I am utterly appalled that he did so and cannot begin to understand why," she said. "These are not my crimes. I was misled just as others were." She said she had not known about the camper van until the police investigation, nor about luxury watches or games consoles, adding that the couple kept separate bank accounts and that she had no access to his financial records.

John Swinney, the current SNP leader who was party leader when Murrell was appointed chief executive in 2001, fought back tears at a press conference, gripping the podium as he was asked how he felt. "I'm gutted by this today," he said, apologising to ordinary SNP members on modest incomes who had donated or raised money that Murrell then stole. "The level of personal horror, betrayal, that I feel is difficult to properly convey to you." Swinney said Murrell had been able to steal for so long because no one could conceive that someone in his position would do so, and that the party's financial controls had since been significantly tightened. He sidestepped questions about why Sturgeon had appeared unconcerned about the luxury goods and whether officials who first raised the alarm over the party's accounts were owed an apology.

Russell Findlay, the Scottish Conservative leader, and Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour's deputy leader, said the denials by Sturgeon and Swinney that they had suspected such a large-scale fraud were not credible. "Swinney should do the right thing and provide compensation to all those who handed over their money to the SNP," Baillie said.

Murrell was the SNP's chief executive for 22 years and played a pivotal role in engineering the party's first Holyrood election victory in 2007 and its 2011 landslide, which triggered the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. He and Sturgeon became the most powerful couple in British politics when she succeeded Alex Salmond as leader and first minister in 2014.