Peter Murrell, the former chief executive of Scotland's Scottish National Party (SNP), has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than £400,000 (approximately €450,000) from the party over more than a decade. The 61-year-old admitted the offences at the High Court in Edinburgh on Monday, following a lengthy investigation into the SNP's finances and the alleged misuse of donations intended to fund Scotland's independence campaign. The money was spent on personal items including a motorhome, expensive cars, and luxury goods.
Murrell led the SNP as chief executive from 2001 to 2023, making him one of the party's most powerful behind-the-scenes figures. He is also the ex-husband of Nicola Sturgeon, who served as Scotland's First Minister — the head of its devolved government — until she resigned abruptly in February 2023. The SNP is the party that has long championed Scotland's independence from the United Kingdom, and investigators focused on around £600,000 in donations raised specifically for that cause. Murrell was arrested in April 2023 after police searched the Glasgow home he shared with Sturgeon; she was herself arrested and questioned in June 2023 but was released without charge and later cleared of any wrongdoing.
Judge James Young, presiding over Monday's hearing, described Murrell's conduct as a "gross breach of trust" and remanded him in custody ahead of a sentencing hearing scheduled for 23 June. Murrell had previously resigned from the SNP in early 2023 after it emerged he had misled the party about its membership numbers, a separate controversy that preceded the financial investigation.
The guilty plea has drawn sharp responses from political and personal quarters. Scotland's current First Minister, John Swinney, said he felt "betrayed," adding that Murrell had been "stealing the hopes, the dreams and the aspirations of thousands of people all over Scotland." Sturgeon, who announced her separation from Murrell in January 2025 after fifteen years of marriage, said in an Instagram post that she was "utterly appalled" and had "no knowledge or suspicion whatsoever" of the fraud. "To be deceived and let down by a husband I loved and trusted has caused me acute pain," she wrote. Sturgeon stepped down as a member of parliament earlier this year, ending a nearly 30-year career as a leading figure in the Scottish independence movement.
The case represents one of the most damaging political scandals in the SNP's history, striking at the heart of a movement built on public trust and a promise to voters that independence would bring better governance to Scotland.