{"id":603162,"date":"2026-05-25T15:19:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T15:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/603162\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T15:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T15:19:09","slug":"former-snp-chief-executive-peter-murrells-400000-embezzlement-was-betrayal-swinney-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/603162\/","title":{"rendered":"Former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell\u2019s \u00a3400,000 embezzlement was \u2018betrayal\u2019, Swinney says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/core\/website\/assets\/static\/news\/incident-types\/light-mode\/analysis.77b314ef10.svg\" alt=\"Analysis\" height=\"2.5rem\" width=\"9.8125rem\" draggable=\"false\" class=\"ssrcss-h608ny-ContributorImageComponent e2hr5uu0\"\/>Opposition parties pose questions for people inside the SNPpublished at 16:13 BST<\/p>\n<p>16:13 BST<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-qs9kpv-Contributor etflsgg2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/916424cc-b698-4d57-ac49-c9ac1d84d63d.png.webp\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>David Wallace Lockhart<br \/>Political correspondent<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">We&#8217;ve had a fair bit of political<br \/>\nreaction to the Murrell story, and a number of parties are keen to pose questions for figures still<br \/>\ninvolved with the SNP.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Scottish Labour say that<br \/>\nthe &#8220;party machine&#8221; and Nicola Sturgeon tried to avoid scrutiny<br \/>\nregarding finances.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">And the Conservatives have<br \/>\naccused the former first minister of having &#8220;shot down&#8221; concerns<br \/>\nabout the state of the SNP&#8217;s books.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The seem to be making<br \/>\nreference to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-65293006\" class=\"ssrcss-ztter6-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a leaked 2021 video<\/a> where Nicola Sturgeon stressed the party&#8217;s<br \/>\nfinances were secure and said that senior party members should be<br \/>\n&#8220;careful&#8221; about suggesting otherwise.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Nicola Sturgeon was<br \/>\ninvestigated as part of Operation Branchform, and no action was taken against<br \/>\nher. She\u2019s stressed today that she had no knowledge of Peter Murrell\u2019s crimes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Shortly after that 2021<br \/>\nvideo was recorded, two members of the SNP&#8217;s ruling body &#8211; treasurer Douglas<br \/>\nChapman and Joanna Cherry &#8211; resigned citing concerns about transparency.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Joanna Cherry has now<br \/>\ncalled for an independent inquiry and has accused some in the party of<br \/>\nthwarting scrutiny.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Internally, the fallout of<br \/>\nthis saga isn&#8217;t likely to be over for the SNP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Opposition parties pose questions for people inside the SNPpublished at 16:13 BST 16:13 BST David Wallace LockhartPolitical correspondent&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-603162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}