Former SNP chief executive admits embezzling £400,000 from party funds

Peter Murrell admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from Scottish National Party funds over a 12-year period, in a case that exposed how party money was siphoned off for personal spending while one of Scotland’s most powerful political operators was at the center of the organisation. Prosecutors said the money was used for a £124,500 motorhome, cars, watches, luxury goods and other items, and Murrell was remanded in custody after pleading guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh.

The admitted sum was £400,310.65, down from an original charge of more than £459,000, covering conduct said to have taken place between August 2010 and October 2022. Police Scotland described Operation Branchform as a lengthy and extremely complex investigation that took more than four years and involved extensive enquiries across Europe. Officers said the offending was a “gross breach of trust” and that false receipts and accounting were used to conceal it, underscoring the scale of the internal failures that allowed the theft to continue for so long.

Murrell was not a peripheral figure. He served as SNP chief executive from 2001 until 2023, giving him direct access to the party’s machinery during the years when the SNP dominated Scottish politics and led the independence campaign. The plea has sharpened scrutiny over how money raised for campaigning and party operations was handled inside an organisation that presented itself as a disciplined political force, and over whether enough oversight existed around a senior official trusted with access to party finances.

The fallout has extended well beyond the courtroom. Nicola Sturgeon said she was “angry, hurt, sad and very distressed” and “utterly appalled” by his actions, while insisting she had no knowledge or suspicion that SNP money was being used for personal purposes and that she had been fully cleared after a thorough investigation. First Minister John Swinney said he was “gutted” and apologised to those affected by the theft, as Scottish Labour’s Jackie Baillie said the guilty plea did not answer the broader questions about what the party leadership knew and when.

The scandal has now become a test of political governance as much as criminal accountability. MSPs have debated a standalone Holyrood inquiry, but the SNP has backed a wider independent review of political party finances instead. At Westminster, the Scottish Affairs Committee has considered its own probe and written to the Electoral Commission, the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Clerk of the House as questions persist over whether public money may have been involved and how the embezzlement went undetected for more than a decade. Murrell is due to be sentenced on Tuesday, 23 June 2026, in a case that has badly damaged SNP credibility and raised fresh doubts among donors about the party’s controls and culture.