The SNP’s refusal to order a review into the Peter Murrell scandal “beggars belief”, a top Scots lawyer has said.
John McGovern, a retired solicitor advocate, said no one in the SNP was “overseeing the overseer” when its chief executive carried out a decade-long embezzlement.
The length of time and apparent ease with which Murrell was able to steal cash from his employers – which a court was told this week came “principally” from membership fees and donations – has prompted increasing calls for the Nationalists to agree to a parliamentary inquiry to examine the affair.
But John Swinney has repeatedly refused to agree to such a move – fuelling speculation that a separate probe led by the Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster could step in instead.
McGovern, a co-host of the Ordinary Elite current affairs podcast, described the lack of financial governance at the SNP during Murrell’s crimes as “staggering”.
In a thread shared on social media, he continued: “The SNP has no protections for its members, or donors, against the commission of fraud or embezzlement by its staff. It is not a legal requirement for UK political parties,” he said.
“The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 offers protections to the public against fraud or embezzlement committed by the employees or agents of a corporate entity, charity or trust.
“Like the Bribery Act 2010, the ECCTA 2023 ensures that companies who turnover a certain amount must have in place risk assessments and other controls to protect the public from their employees embezzling and stealing. These controls must be readily accessible to all.
“The embezzlement carried out by Peter Murrell over a 12-year period could not have been simpler in its execution. Sitting at a laptop, with the party credit card, and embezzling party members’ money online. A few simple forged invoices. No one overseeing the overseer.
Article continues below
“The lack of financial governance at the SNP, during the period of embezzlement, was staggering. There was virtually none. It beggars belief that a party that has been in government for twenty years has allowed this to occur under its own nose, in the very household of its leader.
“That the SNP is refusing to conduct an internal investigation or, as the governing party, order an independent inquiry beggars belief. Were this any other organisation, those NEC members in situ when the police investigation began, would have been suspended, pending the outcome of any internal investigation, which would have been conducted by external lawyers.
“It is now time for members of political parties and their donors to receive the same protection the public receives under the ECCTA 2023 and the Bribery Act 2010.”