Nicola Sturgeon goes into hiding: Ex-First minister to attend Holyrood ‘remotely’ for a week as she faces calls to quit SNP over finance probe – as new leader Humza Yousaf bids to distract from meltdown by doubling council tax on second homes
- Emails suggest Sturgeon refused to open up the SNP’s finances to more scrutiny
- Video also revealed in 2021 she claimed party finances had ‘never been stronger’
Nicola Sturgeon will avoid scrutiny from politicians and the media of her involvement in the SNP finances row this week by refusing to turn up for work at Holyrood.
The former first minister will take part in proceedings in the Scottish Parliament ‘remotely’ as politicians return from their Easter break.
That time off was calamitous for the Scottish National Party. Its former chief executive, Ms Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell, was arrested and their Glasgow home searched by police.
The SNP headquarters in Edinburgh was also searched by police investigating the whereabouts of more than £600,000 of missing donations.
Ms Sturgeon is facing pressure to quit the part she led for eight years after a series of astonishing new allegations suggested she scuppered efforts from SNP officials to hire a fundraising manager to provide checks and oversight of donations.
As her successor Humza Yousaf tries to draw a line under the scandal, an SNP spokesman said: ‘In order to ensure the focus of this week is on the new First Minister setting out his priorities for the people of Scotland, Ms Sturgeon has always intended to participate remotely and intends to return to Holyrood in the near future.’
But the party’s former Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, said there was ‘no reason’ Ms Sturgeon should step down, and branded the furore a ‘media frenzy’.
Mr Yousaf will today unveil plans to double council tax for second homes in Scotland in a speech to trade union leaders.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=iXFGjl1qr1U%3Frel%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26hl%3Den-US
The former first minister will work ‘remotely’ this week as the Scottish Parliament returns from its Easter break.
New video footage revealed Ms Sturgeon claimed in a 2021 meeting that the SNP’s finances had ‘never been stronger’. Some allege the clip reveals ‘everything that was wrong with the SNP under the control of her and Peter Murrell.’ Mr Murrell is pictured in 2020
Mr Yousaf will today unveil plans to double council tax for second homes in Scotland in a speech to trade union leaders.
The proposed changes would enable councils to charge up to double the full rate of council tax on second homes from April 2024, bringing them in line with long-term empty homes.
The proposal is part of a new Scottish Government and Cosla consultation to help increase available housing.
New video footage released yesterday also revealed Ms Sturgeon claimed in a 2021 meeting that the SNP’s finances had ‘never been stronger’.
A senior party source told The Daily Telegraph that they ‘don’t see the advantages’ in Ms Sturgeon keeping her role as an MSP and that the ‘pantomime’ will make life in Parliament ‘very uncomfortable for her’.
The remarks come as senior SNP figures insisted the party remains ‘solvent’ after its treasurer admitted at a weekend meeting of the party’s national executive committee (NEC) that he was having difficulty balancing the books.
According to the Sunday Mail, detectives investigating the funding and finances of the SNP have been passed emails from June 2021 suggesting Ms Sturgeon personally refused a proposal to hire the fundraising manager.
Douglas Chapman, who was the SNP’s treasurer at the time, had suggested the appointment and this was backed by current treasurer Colin Beattie, but the idea was dismissed by Ms Sturgeon.
The emails, which are notes from an SNP governance review group, said: ‘CB can see benefits of a fundraising manager. KB (deputy leader Keith Brown) mentioned this was declined by NS.’
In another email on June 28, 2021, Mr Brown said he had shared details about the proposal being rejected ‘in confidence’ and requested that the member of the review group who received the email did not tell anyone else.
Video footage of a March 2021 NEC meeting also showed Ms Sturgeon lashing out at the decision of three members of the party’s finance and audit committee to quit over the lack of transparency about finances. She said: ‘The party has never been in a stronger financial position than it is right now and that’s a reflection of our strength and our membership.
‘I’m not going to get into the details… but just be very careful about suggestions there are problems with the party’s finances, because we depend on donors.
‘There are no reasons for people to be concerned about the party’s finances and all of us need to be careful about not suggesting there is. We’ve got to be careful we don’t reap what we sow. If we have leaks from this body it limits the ability for open discussion.’
In wake of the newly unveiled evidence, SNP insiders allege Ms Sturgeon – who planned to remain in Holyrood until 2026 – will be quitting ‘sooner than later’.
‘There is growing suspicion now that she will be stepping down,’ the source told The Telegraph, adding that regardless of how Ms Sturgeon tries to help her consistency the ‘opposition will drag all this up any chance they get.’
First Minister Humza Yousef, Ms Sturgeon’s successor, is also facing demands to suspend her party membership if she does not step down.
Nicola Sturgeon votes with her husband Peter Murrell at Broomhouse Community Hall in Ballieston on December 2019, in Glasgow, Scotland
Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy said: ‘Nicola Sturgeon has huge questions to answer over this devastating video, which reveals everything that was wrong with the SNP under the control of her and Peter Murrell.
‘For her to claim that the party’s finances were in rude health – a matter of weeks before a police investigation was launched into the missing £600,000 and her chief executive husband lent his own employers a six-figure sum to help with ‘cashflow’ issues – is frankly astonishing.
‘Her trademark addiction to secrecy, and to image over candour, can be seen in her crude efforts to suppress any discussion from NEC members about the party’s finances because it might put off donors.
‘No wonder ‘continuity candidate’ Humza Yousaf is now desperately trying to distance himself from the Sturgeon-Murrell era. The shocking lack of transparency among the toxic clique at the top of the SNP is what has got the party in its current mess.
‘If Humza Yousaf wants to show he’s determined to tackle the crisis within the SNP, he should suspend the party membership of Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell.’
At a meeting of the SNP’s NEC on Saturday, Mr Beattie is said to have warned about the growing strain on the party’s finances. According to the Sunday Times, he said there was ‘difficulty in balancing the books due to the reduction in membership and donors’.
Last month, it was revealed that the SNP had lost 30,000 members in just over a year, even though the party previously claimed the figures were inaccurate.
Johnston Carmichael resigned as the SNP’s auditor last September and also walked away from the SNP Westminster group, which is now in danger of losing more than £1million of Westminster ‘short money’ unless it finds, by the end of next month, a new auditor to confirm it spent the money exclusively on parliamentary duties.
It also emerged yesterday that the SNP informed the Electoral Commission that its auditors had resigned in ‘early February’, which was shortly before Ms Sturgeon announced her resignation.
Referring to Saturday’s meeting, the SNP said: ‘The SNP national executive committee agreed to a series of proposals to increase transparency in the SNP.
‘It is the case that the SNP accounts are published annually and are in order.’
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