Overview
- Peter Murrell, the SNP’s former chief executive, pleaded guilty on Monday to embezzling about £400,310 from the party between 2010 and 2022.
- Court filings list hundreds of personal purchases paid with party money, including a motorhome, two cars, luxury watches, designer pens and multiple high-end coffee machines.
- Murrell is remanded in custody and a court will read fuller facts in early June with sentencing scheduled for later that month.
- Opposition politicians and some former SNP figures are demanding an independent or Holyrood inquiry into how party controls failed while First Minister John Swinney says the police probe addresses the issue and Nicola Sturgeon maintains she had no knowledge and was cleared by Police Scotland.
- The guilty plea removes a full trial that could have produced public testimony, concentrates focus on governance reforms and donor protections, and raises wider reputational and political risks for the SNP and the independence campaign.