Former Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Nicola Sturgeon on Saturday spoke in public for the first time since her husband Peter Murrell was questioned about the party’s financial affairs.
Murrell, 58, who was the SNP’s chief executive until last month, was arrested on Wednesday morning in connection with a long-running Police Scotland investigation into the spending of about £600,000 ($749,000), which was raised by the SNP to fund its campaigning for Scottish independence.
He was released from custody the same evening “pending further investigation.”
Police also searched “a number of addresses,” including Sturgeon and Murrell’s home in Glasgow.
Speaking outside her home on Saturday, Sturgeon said she will fully cooperate with the police investigation, and asked reporters to respect her family and neighbours’ privacy.
Sturgeon said there is nothing she can say about the ongoing investigation.
“As much as there are things I might want to say I’m not able to do so other than to say that, as has been the case, there will continue to be full cooperation,” the former first minister said.
“The last few days have been obviously difficult, quite traumatic at times, but I understand that is part of a process.
Sturgeon said she understands and has “always accepted” the scrutiny she gets as a public figure, but said she and her neighbours are also “entitled to a little bit of privacy” in their homes.
Ask whether she has been questioned by the police, Sturgeon said she hasn’t.
The police investigation into the SNP’s finances began in July 2021, following complaints about how donations given to the party for use in a fresh independence referendum campaign had been used.
Two SNP MPs had quit the party’s National Executive Committee in May that year, citing a lack of transparency.
But the SNP leadership strongly denied claims the money raised for independence campaigning was diverted elsewhere.
Sturgeon, who was Scotland’s first minister and SNP leader, insisted she was “not concerned” about the party’s finances and that “every penny” of cash raised in online crowdfunding campaigns would be spent on the independence drive.
The party said it raised a total of £666,953 through referendum-related appeals between 2017 and 2020.
But questions were raised after its accounts showed it had just under £97,000 in the bank at the end of 2019, and total net assets of about £272,000.
It emerged last year that Murrell had loaned the SNP £107,620 in June 2021. An SNP spokesman said at the time that the loan was a “personal contribution made by the chief executive to assist with cash flow after the Holyrood election.”
Accounting firm Johnston Carmichael resigned as SNP’s auditor. In an email sent to The Epoch Times on Saturday, a spokesperson for the firm said: “As a regulated organisation, we adhere to our obligations on client confidentiality and do not discuss client business.”
The firm resigned before Murrell’s arrest but The Epoch Times cannot verify the exact timeline of the events.
Murrell’s arrest came just a week after Sturgeon stepped down as first minister.
