EUAN McCOLM: Peter Murrell will pay the price for his crimes - but John Swinney's reputation might be shredded if he doesn't change his tune

Published: 20:48, 2 June 2026 | Updated: 20:55, 2 June 2026 His lips trembling, the handcuff clicked around his wrist. Standing in the dock inside Edinburgh’s High Court, flanked by two female custody officers, former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell had just heard Advocate Depute Alan Cameron, KC, narrate, on behalf of the Crown, details of both his arrest and his crimes. Once, as the husband of Nicola Sturgeon from whom he is now estranged, half of the most powerful couple in Scotland, Mr Murrell cut a pathetic figure. As he was led from the courtroom to which he will return on June 23 for sentencing after he pleaded guilty to embezzling more than £400,000 from the SNP while he was in charge, he looked small, diminished, older than his 61 years. Listening to Mr Cameron, it was difficult not to feel some sympathy for the man in the dock. Peter Murrell will be sentenced later this month after pleading guilty to embezzlement Yes, his breach of the trust of SNP members was appalling but he has now begun paying a heavy price. After this period of national humiliation, Murrell faces a lengthy prison sentence. So, of course, the downfall of Peter Murrell is a huge personal tragedy. Since Murrell’s guilty plea last week, First Minister John Swinney has been engaged in a losing battle to persuade the people of Scotland that there is no longer anything to see here. Mr Swinney expects sentient adults to accept that, despite senior SNP figures raising questions about missing money even as Murrell was spending like a drunk pools winner with the party credit card, and despite those questions being angrily shut down by Nicola Sturgeon and her acolytes, the former chief executive was a criminal mastermind whose embezzlement was impossible to detect. This story was entirely undermined on Tuesday as Mr Cameron described Mr Murrell’s modus operandi, which sounded little more sophisticated than him Tippexing out the words ‘fancy jewellery’ on receipts and scrawling ‘important politics stuff’ over the top. Ms Sturgeon, having fled the leadership of the SNP weeks before officers from Police Scotland swooped on the home she and Murrell once shared, has responded to the fallout from her estranged husband’s crimes in customary style, by draping herself in the sorrowful cloak of victimhood. In a lengthy interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Ms Sturgeon – her lawyer, Aamer Anwar, lurking in the background – gave a performance familiar to anyone who has followed her career. As was the case with those long-ignored concerns about the conduct of the late Alex Salmond, Ms Sturgeon saw nothing. If she was guilty of anything, it was of trusting too much. Ms Sturgeon’s currency, now at rock bottom, cannot cover the cost of her public rehabilitation. Few believe her insistence she did not shut down questions about the SNP’s finances. Of course, some may have tribal, political motivations for believing Ms Sturgeon shut down questions but others may have reached the same conclusion after watching the leaked video of a meeting of the party’s national executive committee during which Ms Sturgeon closed down questions about SNP finances. But the former First Minister is yesterday’s woman. Her political legacy is a country bitterly divided, an ongoing attack on the hard-won sex-based rights of women, and the dangerous diminution of trust in politics. Just as Ms Sturgeon, having skedaddled to London is no longer Scotland’s problem, the Murrell scandal is no longer hers. It is, however, very much John Swinney’s. Peter Murrell appearing at the High Court in Edinburgh during a hearing on Tuesday The SNP’s response to the scandal of its chief executive embezzling money donated at the solicitation of his wife and other senior politicians has been utterly tin-eared. Not only did Mr Swinney lose his temper in a most unappealing manner during First Minister’s Questions, raging at Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar that voters had heard what he had to say about Murrell and they’d still sent 58 SNP MSPs back to Holyrood on May 7, he ruled out an entirely necessary independent inquiry. Meanwhile, the SNP has issued triumphalist statements about a rise in donations since last week’s guilty plea. The line between rallying the troops and exposing your contempt for them is not a fine one, but the SNP communications team has leapt across it with ease. Who knows, if members give enough the SNP might be able to begin compensating them with their own money. Many of the questions Ms Sturgeon now struggles to answer should also be directed at Mr Swinney. Yes, she was party leader when her husband was rinsing the accounts but Mr Swinney was deputy First Minister. He was the second most powerful politician in the SNP (the party’s deputy leader Keith Brown has vanishingly little influence) and a central figure in the tightly- knit cabal, including Ms Sturgeon and Murrell, that directed strategy. It is inconceivable Mr Swinney was not aware five years ago that senior members of his party had serious concerns about party finances. The First Minister knew that, in May 2021, party treasurer Douglas Chapman resigned because he ‘had not received the support or financial information required to carry out the fiduciary duties of national treasurer’. And Mr Swinney, who has built what political reputation he has on the idea of him as a sober, bank managerly sort of fellow, should have known Ms Sturgeon’s explanation for the fact more than £600,000 was missing from a supposedly ‘ring-fenced’ campaign account – ‘accounts are managed on a cash flow basis’ – was complete hooey. It’s been asked often over the past week how it could be that Nicola Sturgeon did not notice the thousands upon thousands of pounds worth of luxury goods being delivered to the home she shared with Murrell. It might equally be asked of Mr Swinney how he did not notice the absence of things that Murrell claimed to have purchased on behalf of the party. Mr Swinney’s incuriosity about the then chief executive’s actions, even as the air shrieked with whistles and red flags obscured the sun, is no less shocking than Ms Sturgeon’s failure to wonder where the sparkling new Jag in her driveway had come from. Nicola Sturgeonoutside of the home she shared with now estranged husband Peter M The First Minister will not disentangle himself from the Murrell scandal by losing his composure when asked legitimate questions about his response. Peter Murrell continued to embezzle after the alarm was raised about SNP accounts. Voters are entitled to understand how this could happen while John Swinney was at the very top of the government. There have been questions for Ms Sturgeon about the wisdom of retaining her husband in the position of chief executive of the SNP when she became leader. She now admits that was a mistake and that a conflict did exist. That conflict – that enmeshing of the personal and the political – may well explain why Nicola Sturgeon did not pay as close attention as she should have to the SNP’s accounts. With this in mind, it’s worth remembering that it was Mr Swinney who appointed his childhood friend Peter Murrell SNP chief executive in 2001. Recklessly ignored conflicts take different shapes. Judging by the way he’s handling this crisis, it’s possible the First Minister simply doesn’t realise the danger he’s in. Much more anger and evasion in his public appearances and he’ll soon find out. Voters have turned on Nicola Sturgeon. Her reputation is shredded. John Swinney will be next if he doesn’t change his tune. The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? 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