Nicola Sturgeon refused to open up the SNP’s finances to more scrutiny and denied the party was facing a cash crisis, it has been revealed.
A series of astonishing new allegations suggest the former First Minister scuppered efforts from party officials to hire a fundraising manager to provide checks and oversight of donations.
New video footage also revealed Ms Sturgeon claimed in a 2021 meeting that the SNP’s finances had ‘never been stronger’.
It comes as senior SNP figures insisted the party remains ‘solvent’ after its treasurer admitted at a weekend meeting of the party’s national executive committee (NEC) that he was having difficulty balancing the books.
Nicola Sturgeon refused to open up the SNP’s finances to more scrutiny and denied the party was facing a cash crisis, it has been revealed. She is pictured outside her Glasgow home today
New video footage revealed Ms Sturgeon claimed in a 2021 meeting that the SNP’s finances had ‘never been stronger’. Some allege the clip reveals ‘everything that was wrong with the SNP under the control of her and Peter Murrell.’ Mr Murrell is pictured in 2020
According to the Sunday Mail, detectives investigating the funding and finances of the SNP have been passed emails from June 2021 suggesting Ms Sturgeon personally refused a proposal to hire the fundraising manager.
Douglas Chapman, who was the SNP’s treasurer at the time, had suggested the appointment and this was backed by current treasurer Colin Beattie, but the idea was dismissed by Ms Sturgeon.
The emails, which are notes from an SNP governance review group, said: ‘CB can see benefits of a fundraising manager. KB (deputy leader Keith Brown) mentioned this was declined by NS.’
In another email on June 28, 2021, Mr Brown said he had shared details about the proposal being rejected ‘in confidence’ and requested that the member of the review group who received the email did not tell anyone else.
Video footage of a March 2021 NEC meeting also showed Ms Sturgeon lashing out at the decision of three members of the party’s finance and audit committee to quit over the lack of transparency about finances. She said: ‘The party has never been in a stronger financial position than it is right now and that’s a reflection of our strength and our membership.
‘I’m not going to get into the details… but just be very careful about suggestions there are problems with the party’s finances, because we depend on donors.
‘There are no reasons for people to be concerned about the party’s finances and all of us need to be careful about not suggesting there is. We’ve got to be careful we don’t reap what we sow. If we have leaks from this body it limits the ability for open discussion.’
Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy said: ‘Nicola Sturgeon has huge questions to answer over this devastating video, which reveals everything that was wrong with the SNP under the control of her and Peter Murrell.
‘For her to claim that the party’s finances were in rude health – a matter of weeks before a police investigation was launched into the missing £600,000 and her chief executive husband lent his own employers a six-figure sum to help with “cashflow” issues – is frankly astonishing.
‘Her trademark addiction to secrecy, and to image over candour, can be seen in her crude efforts to suppress any discussion from NEC members about the party’s finances because it might put off donors.
Nicola Sturgeon votes with her husband Peter Murrell at Broomhouse Community Hall in Ballieston on December 2019, in Glasgow, Scotland
‘No wonder “continuity candidate” Humza Yousaf is now desperately trying to distance himself from the Sturgeon-Murrell era. The shocking lack of transparency among the toxic clique at the top of the SNP is what has got the party in its current mess.
‘If Humza Yousaf wants to show he’s determined to tackle the crisis within the SNP, he should suspend the party membership of Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell.’
At a meeting of the SNP’s NEC on Saturday, Mr Beattie is said to have warned about the growing strain on the party’s finances. According to the Sunday Times, he said there was ‘difficulty in balancing the books due to the reduction in membership and donors’.
Last month, it was revealed that the SNP had lost 30,000 members in just over a year, even though the party previously claimed the figures were inaccurate.
Ian Blackford, the SNP’s former Westminster leader, yesterday tried to dismiss the concerns about the finances of the party. He told BBC Radio Scotland’s The Sunday Show that the reported comments were ‘highly selective’.
Mr Blackford said: ‘Absolutely, categorically, the SNP is solvent, the finances are in balance.
‘We will be able to meet our obligations, our liabilities, going forward. Everybody knows there has been a dip in SNP membership. I’d like to think we can grow the membership over the coming period, but when all is said and done we’ve still got over 70,000 members – members that are paying subscriptions – donations coming in, parliamentarians making contributions.
‘As would be normal, we’d be looking at how we can raise additional funds as well.’
He added: ‘The party, financially, is in robust health in terms of meeting its obligations.’
‘If Humza Yousaf (pictured on Monday) wants to show he’s determined to tackle the crisis within the SNP, he should suspend the party membership of Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell,’ said Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy
Mr Blackford admitted he could not ‘tell you exactly when’ he heard that the party’s auditors had quit.
Johnston Carmichael resigned as the SNP’s auditor last September and also walked away from the SNP Westminster group, which is now in danger of losing more than £1million of Westminster ‘short money’ unless it finds, by the end of next month, a new auditor to confirm it spent the money exclusively on parliamentary duties.
Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: ‘The SNP is a party in complete disarray, with claim and counter-claim being traded in the crossfire.
‘Ian Blackford has been at the heart of the SNP leadership for years. He is directly implicated in the financial and political chaos at the heart of the party.
‘That Blackford claims to not remember when he was told that the auditors had quit is mind-boggling. All the evidence shows that they resigned while he was leader of the SNP Westminster group.’
It also emerged yesterday that the SNP informed the Electoral Commission that its auditors had resigned in ‘early February’, which was shortly before Ms Sturgeon announced her resignation.
Referring to Saturday’s meeting, the SNP said: ‘The SNP national executive committee agreed to a series of proposals to increase transparency in the SNP.
‘It is the case that the SNP accounts are published annually and are in order.’
