Ministers back SNP probe as Sturgeon refuses to apologise for Murrell

Two top government ministers have backed an inquiry into the SNP after its former chief executive Peter Murrell admitted to embezzling over £400,000 from the party.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg that there “should definitely be an inquiry because trust in politics has been fundamentally undermined by the Scottish Nationalist chief executive stealing money from his own supporters.” 

“It’s right this is properly investigated because trust in politics has been undermined, and we need to get to the bottom of it,” Philp said. 

Philp added that Murrell’s ex-wife and former SNP party leader Nicola Sturgeon “has more questions to answer as well”.

Work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden also told Kuenssberg this morning when asked if there should be an inquiry into the party over Murrell’s embezzlement that he supports the idea.

“The SNP have been the dominant force in Scottish politics for 20 years, and that dominance has extended not just to politics but to society and culture, and it has been protected by a claim to virtue, which is often denied to those elsewhere in the UK, particularly to England,” McFadden said. 

The nationalist party’s current leader, John Swinney, has rejected calls for an investigation, but McFadden said Westminster should lead the probe for it to move ahead. 

McFadden told Times Radio this morning the SNP has “surrounded itself by this culture of secrecy and control.”

“Scandal is something that touches all political parties. It’s touched my party, it will touch other parties. The only response to it is to publish everything, get it out of the door,” McFadden said.

Murrell pled guilty at Edinburgh’s High Court on Monday last week where he admitted using “false or inaccurate accounting codes and descriptions for the purchase of said items” to “disguise the true nature of said purchases.”

Sturgeon refuses to apologise ‘for somebody else’s crimes’

Sturgeon, also speaking to Laura Kuenssberg this morning, refused to apologise for her estranged husband’s crimes which she said were “somebody else’s”. 

“I will take responsibility for the things I do, the decisions I make. I’m sitting here with you right now, answering questions because I believe strongly in that accountability,” she said to Kuenssberg.

“But I am not responsible for the crimes that my former husband committed and I’m not going to apologise for somebody else’s crimes.”