Sturgeon denies knowledge of husband's SNP embezzlement in first interview since guilty plea
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's former first minister, said she feels like she is "serving a sentence for a crime I did not commit" after her estranged husband Peter Murrell admitted embezzling £400,000 from the SNP. In her first media interview since Murrell's guilty plea, Sturgeon told the BBC she had no knowledge of his crimes and refused to apologise for the scandal. The interview, broadcast on Sunday, saw Sturgeon become visibly emotional while discussing gifts from Murrell that were purchased with stolen party funds.
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's former first minister, said she feels like she is "serving a sentence for a crime I did not commit" after her estranged husband Peter Murrell admitted embezzling £400,000 from the Scottish National Party between 2010 and 2022.
In her first media interview since Murrell's guilty plea, broadcast on Sunday, Sturgeon told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg: "I am not responsible for the crimes that my former husband committed and I'm not going to apologise for somebody else's crimes." She added: "I'm out here feeling as if I'm serving a sentence for a crime I did not commit."
Murrell, the SNP's former chief executive, spent £124,550 of party funds on a motorhome parked at his mother's house in Dunfermline. Sturgeon said she had no "conscious memory" of seeing the vehicle, explaining that it was "round the sides of the house which is not immediately visible in the way that we went into the home." She said if she had seen it she would "probably have assumed it was a neighbour's."
Sturgeon became visibly emotional when discussing a £400 pendant Murrell bought from a Shetland jeweller as a gift for her, which she often wore in public. "I loved that necklace and I wore it a lot," she said, struggling to hold back tears. "To then find out that these were gifts given to me that he'd bought with the party's money causes a level of, I don't know, pain, bewilderment."
Sturgeon was arrested in connection with the Operation Branchform investigation but released without charge. She said she is open to publishing her statement to police, subject to legal advice. Asked if she should contribute to recovering money from Murrell, she said: "I am not guilty of that embezzlement, so nothing that belongs to me should be part of it."
Murrell was remanded in custody after his guilty plea and is due to be sentenced on 23 June.
UK government minister Pat McFadden called for a Holyrood inquiry into the SNP, saying there should not be a "culture of control and secrecy that just tries to shut this down." First Minister John Swinney rejected the calls, telling the BBC: "We know exactly what happened. You can't actually get a standard of investigation any higher in Scotland than a forensic police investigation that results in a successful High Court prosecution and a guilty plea."
Former SNP MP Joanna Cherry said Sturgeon was "setting up a straw man" and deflecting from her frustration of legitimate scrutiny. Cherry told BBC Scotland's The Sunday Show: "She's trying to put in our minds that she's being held guilty for her husband's embezzlement, but what we are actually concerned about is her frustration of legitimate scrutiny of the finances of the party."