Peter Murrell Embezzled £400,000 from SNP, Bought Motorhome and Luxury Goods

Peter Murrell, the former chief executive of the Scottish National Party (SNP), diverted over £400,000 of party funds for personal use between 2010 and 2022. Court documents, comprising more than 100 pages, detail over 1,000 individual purchases, ranging from luxury goods to everyday items.

Murrell's illicit spending commenced in August 2010, shortly after his marriage to Nicola Sturgeon, with the purchase of two Ali Baba laundry baskets for £70.89. His acquisitions escalated over the years, peaking in 2020 with the £124,550 procurement of a Niesmann and Bischoff Smove 7.4e motorhome.

Among the items documented are high-value goods such as Lalique salt and pepper grinders costing £2,618, Montblanc cufflinks priced at £215—which he appeared to wear at Wimbledon in 2016—and numerous Helly Hansen outdoor clothing items. Household electronics, including a £1,299 Miele coffee machine and various vacuum cleaners totalling nearly £4,000, also featured prominently. Murrell additionally purchased a £943 library ladder, visible in photographs of his former home with Sturgeon.

The expenditure patterns reveal an increase in spending around the 2014 Scottish independence referendum and a significant rise in 2016. Despite concerns raised by SNP activists and Members of Parliament in 2020 regarding £600,000 in ringfenced independence campaign donations, Murrell's purchasing continued until October 2022.

Police Scotland initiated Operation Branchform, an investigation into the SNP's finances, in July 2021. Murrell resigned from his position as chief executive in March 2023.