Could Holyrood and Westminster work together on SNP embezzlement inquiry?

Lord Jack McConnell said the Commons Public Accounts Committee should hold a probe with the equivalent Scottish Parliament committee.

Murrell – the ex-husband of former Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon – last week pleaded guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh to embezzling £400,310.65 from the SNP between 2010 and 2022.

Lord McConnell, who was Scottish Labour leader and First Minister between 2001 and 2007, made his comments after Ms Sturgeon gave her first broadcast interview since her estranged husband pleaded guilty.

He said the issues around how former SNP chief executive was able to embezzle the money are “issues that are UK-wide.”

He said: “This is about the fact that the SNP were the third largest party at Westminster for the best part of 10 years.

“They received over that time millions of pounds of public money to organise their party affairs.

“Obviously there are also issues about signing off accounts, and how seriously that was all taken, and I think on all these areas there are issues to be looked at, and recommendations that must be made. So I think this should be a joint public inquiry.

“I think it should probably be led by the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons but it should be done equally and jointly with the equivalent committee at Holyrood.

“So it’s not seen to be the UK Parliament poking its nose into Scottish politics, but the issues about political party funding, about public money, and about the way in which the transparency of political parties’ use of small donations, the protection for small donors.

“These are issues that are UK-wide. They’re issues for the Electoral Commission and for the UK Parliament.”

First Minister John Swinney has so far rejected calls for a Holyrood inquiry into the embezzlement which has led Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee to consider its own probe, which eight of the 11 members support.

The committee is made up of almost all Scottish MPs. The SNP has just one of the 11 places, with six Labour members, two Tories and two Lib Dems. In contrast there is only one Scottish MP on the Public Accounts Committee – Labour’s Chris Kane.

Lord McConnell continued: “These things are always difficult in terms of the balance, and nobody ever questions the neutrality of the Public Accounts Committee.

“So I think it is the right committee to do this, and … I don’t think they should do it on their own, I think they should do it jointly with (Holyrood).

“I think that might be a first, I don’t think there’s ever been a joint committee of this sort.

“But … what better cause to have (it for)? The purpose of it should be to make recommendations to stop this happening again in any party.

“It should not just be about getting to the bottom of what happened in the SNP, it should be about: how do we strengthen our democracy?”

Shadow Scottish secretary Andrew Bowie has also called for a Westminster committee to investigate the “wider institutional questions” arising from the Murrell case.

Mr Bowie argued that “given the gravity of the misconduct” involved and the “seniority” of Murrell’s role as SNP chief executive at the time, there are “unanswered questions surrounding governance and oversight”.

In a letter to Scottish Affairs Committee chairwoman Patricia Ferguson, he said: “There is a strong and compelling case for the committee to undertake an inquiry.

“While the criminal justice process has rightly addressed individual culpability, it does not answer the wider institutional questions that this case raises.

“In the absence of a Holyrood-led inquiry, there is a compelling argument for Westminster scrutiny to ensure that the necessary questions are asked, and lessons properly learned.”

Speaking out about the matter, Mr Bowie said: “John Swinney’s refusal to sanction a Holyrood inquiry into this scandal means it falls to Westminster to examine the failings in financial governance that allowed Peter Murrell to steal from SNP accounts for years.

“I have written to the chair of the Scottish Affairs Committee requesting a probe because there were clearly systemic failings that Murrell exploited.

“These need to be identified and addressed so that lessons are learned – not just by the SNP but by all political parties.

“SNP donors deserve answers – and so do taxpayers, as it appears public money was in the pot that Murrell stole from to feather the marital nest he shared with Sturgeon.”

Speaking in Holyrood on Thursday, Mr Swinney said: “We have just had a police investigation which has gone on for five years and that police investigation has identified criminality as the source of this particular issue, and that is now being remedied.

“I don’t think there is anything a parliamentary inquiry can add to a five-year forensic police investigation that has resulted in the successful prosecution of an individual and his guilty plea.”

The SNP leader added he would rather “concentrate on the priorities of the people of Scotland”.

Committee chair, Patricia Ferguson said: “We are aware of calls for the Scottish Affairs Committee to undertake work in respect of the recent developments relating to the SNP party’s finance.

“The Committee will consider this issue in due course.”

A narrative agreed by prosecution and Peter Murrell's defence solicitors is due to be heard in court tomorrow, and he will be sentenced next month.