Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is no longer under investigation in the Police Scotland inquiry into the Scottish National Party (SNP) finances. The news was made public at the same time as her husband, Peter Murrell, was charged with embezzlement and appeared before a court in Edinburgh.
Ex-SNP chief executive Murrell did not plea during a closed hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. He was released on bail after the hearing. The police also said that Colin Beattie, the previous treasurer of the SNP, was no longer under investigation regarding the case.
Sturgeon and Murrell recently announced that they had split up and were in the midst of officially dissolving their marriage. Murrell was first arrested in April of last year and then released on bail. He has since been formally charged and is said to have resigned from the SNP. Beattie, who is a member of Midlothian North and Musselburgh in the Scottish Parliament, was arrested in April 2023 but released on bail.
In June 2023, Sturgeon was arrested during the inquiry but released on the same day without charge. Police Scotland now confirmed that inquiries into both Sturgeon and Beattie are over, revealing that neither of them has been charged and they are no longer being investigated.
Sturgeon’s sudden resignation as first minister and SNP leader in February 2023, after a record eight years in office, fueled speculation about its link to the financial investigation. But she strongly denied that the police inquiry had anything to do with her resignation.
Murrell’s own resignation from his long-standing role as SNP chief executive followed a month later, under pressure over misleading claims made to the media about party membership figures. In April 2023, their house was raided by police officers probing the management of £660,000 in donations received from supporters of independence by the SNP. The raid spread to the party headquarters in Edinburgh, and officials also took away a luxury motorhome from Murrell’s mother’s driveway in Fife.
The inquiry, Operation Branchform, has now lasted almost four years. In September last year, it was revealed that police had presented evidence to prosecutors in the shape of an “advice and guidance report,” requesting formal guidance on what to do next.
Last week, Sturgeon stated she would stand down as an MSP at the next Holyrood election. Meanwhile, Beattie is reportedly planning to stand for re-election, though he has to face a selection contest for the SNP nomination in his constituency.
The lengthy inquiry has had profound political consequences. A case of this scale, though not uncommon in policing, has had a colossal effect on the political scene in Scotland. For almost four years, it has hung over the leadership of the party, overshadowing those at the heart of the investigation and impacting the SNP’s reputation as Scotland’s governing party.
Dramatic scenes followed the police inquiry, including when police set up a blue forensic tent outside the home where Sturgeon and Murrell once lived. Investigators, with boxes of evidence from the property, searched the SNP headquarters in Edinburgh meanwhile. Top party figures believe they paid a heavy political price for the scandal, which helped the SNP suffer its heavy defeats in the UK general election last year.
Previously, Sturgeon, who has repeatedly denied doing anything wrong, described her part in the probe as “traumatic.” She is unlikely to sue over this despite this, according to reports, and will instead focus on living life as it is.
