SNP chief exec pleads guilty to £400,310 embezzlement

Former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has described the past week as the worst of her life, following her estranged husband’s guilty plea to embezzling more than £400,000 from the Scottish National Party. Peter Murrell, the party’s former chief executive, admitted to stealing £400,310.65 from SNP funds between 2010 and 2022, spending the money on luxury items including a motorhome, cars, watches, and high-end household goods.

Murrell has been remanded in custody pending sentencing next month. The court revelations detailed expenditures on items such as a £124,000 motorhome, an £80,000 Jaguar, Montblanc pens, and a £2,618 salt and pepper set.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the court appearance at literary festivals in Ireland and Wales, Sturgeon said she was coming to terms with having been married to someone she clearly did not know. She described feeling deceived, misled, lied to, and betrayed. She stated that a two-year police investigation into the party’s finances had completely exonerated her of any wrongdoing, and she insisted she had cooperated fully with authorities.

Addressing public skepticism, Sturgeon argued that a key assumption—that she was...