The Scottish Conservatives are demanding answers from the SNP Government amid reports that taxpayers’ money was in the pot raided by Peter Murrell to fund his £400,000 spending spree.
Lothian MSP Miles Briggs has today submitted an urgent question to the Presiding Officer after the Advocate Depute at Murrell’s narrative hearing did not rule out that public money – as well as donations from supporters – was stolen by the party’s former chief executive.
Briggs says John Swinney has tried to dance round this issue when asked about it, and that taxpayers deserve clarity.
He added that Swinney’s “slippery” comments on this and his shifting position on the strength of the SNP’s internal financial safeguards, which Murrell exploited, underlined the need for a parliamentary inquiry into the scandal.
Scottish Conservative MSP Miles Briggs said: “Scottish taxpayers deserve to know definitively whether their hard-earned cash was stolen by Peter Murrell.
“It seems from the Advocate Depute’s comments yesterday, and John Swinney’s slippery response when asked, that it wasn’t just SNP supporters’ cash that Murrell pilfered to pay for the luxury goods he and Nicola Sturgeon enjoyed.
“I hope the Presiding Officer will select the urgent question I’ve submitted because ordinary Scots deserve answers – not the usual SNP stonewalling.
“The case for a parliamentary inquiry into this huge SNP scandal is growing more compelling by the day.
“In a matter of days, Swinney has shifted from saying the SNP’s financial safeguards were fine to admitting that they were inadequate – and yet he turned on a journalist who pointed out his U-turn.
“We need to know why Swinney and Sturgeon tried to silence whistleblowers who raised questions over the party’s finances in 2021 – because their attempts to sweep things under the carpet enabled Murrell to continue embezzling money after Operation Branchform was launched.”
Notes to editors
Urgent question submitted by Miles Briggs: To ask the Scottish Government for its response to reports that taxpayers’ money may have been embezzled by Peter Murrell following remarks from the Advocate Depute at yesterday’s narrative hearing that did not rule out taxpayers’ money being part of the sum of money embezzled.
John Swinney said that it wasn’t public money that was embezzled from the SNP. Swinney told Parliament last week: ‘it is SNP supporters’ money that has been embezzled, and not public money.’ (Official report, 28 May 2026, link).
The Crown Office said the money embezzled was ‘principally’ from SNP membership fees and donors. The Advocate Depute said: ‘The source of those [embezzled] funds was the party’s principal bank account over which the accused had control. The money within that account came principally from membership fees and donations paid by party members and other donors and legacies.’ (BBC News, 2 June 2026, link).