Sturgeon ‘had no suspicion’ personal items were purchased with SNP funds

Nicola Sturgeon has said she “had no knowledge or suspicion whatsoever that personal items had been purchased using SNP funds”, after her estranged husband Peter Murrell admitted embezzling £400,000 from the SNP.

The former first minister of Scotland said she was not aware of many of the items being purchased by Murrell with funds embezzled from the SNP.

Following Murrell’s guilty plea, a list of the items he purchased with the money was revealed in court papers.

The included three Wusthof manicure sets worth £193.70, DVDs including The Killing and Borgen as well as a book of Ms Sturgeon’s speeches.

Murrell had been chief executive of the SNP for more than 20 years, until he stood down amid the race to replace Ms Sturgeon as the party’s leader.

In a statement released through her lawyer, Aamer Anwar, Sturgeon said she and Murrell had separate bank accounts and she had no access to his financial records.

She said: “Today the media is reporting details of items that my former husband has now admitted buying with SNP funds.

“I have seen questions raised about how I could not have known about this.

“I want to reiterate that I had no knowledge or suspicion whatsoever that personal items had been purchased using SNP funds.

“I was cleared of any wrongdoing after a lengthy and thorough investigation.”

She continued: “In relation to many of the items in question, for example expensive watches and games consoles, I was not aware of them having been purchased at all.

“Indeed, in relation to the item of largest value – a campervan – I was not aware of its existence until it featured in the police investigation in early 2023, nor was it parked in our driveway as has been claimed by some.

“In respect of any items I was aware of Peter having purchased, I had no reason to doubt that he had used his own money.

“We were both earning high salaries and, due to the responsibilities of my job, rarely socialised or went on holidays.

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“We had separate bank accounts and I had no access to his financial records.”

Earlier, Ms Sturgeon said she was “utterly appalled” that her former husband had used the party’s money for personal purposes.

She accepted there would be a “political discussion in the light of what has happened” but the former first minister said that for her this “has also been a profound personal trauma”.