'Green lapdogs' spark fury by helping John Swinney block Peter Murrell probe

By TOM GORDON, SCOTTISH DAILY MAIL DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR Published: 20:47, 10 June 2026 | Updated: 20:47, 10 June 2026 John Swinney and his ‘Green lapdogs’ have sparked fury by ‘shamefully’ blocking a Holyrood inquiry into the Peter Murrell scandal. The Nationalist parties voted against a probe into how the former SNP chief executive embezzled over £400,000 and how police and prosecutors responded. SNP and Green MSPs instead backed an ‘independent review’ into party finance in general which will ignore Murrell’s crimes and the SNP culture that ‘enabled’ them. As the regulation of parties and their funding is reserved to Westminster, Holyrood would not even have the power to put any recommendations into law. The Commons Scottish Affairs Committee (SAC) will now consider holding its own inquiry into Murrell - although Mr Swinney has refused to say if he would appear before it. Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said: ‘This pathetic smokescreen by the SNP’s faithful Green lapdogs is designed to deflect attention from the Peter Murrell scandal. ‘An inquiry would ask key questions about the SNP’s despicable tactics of silencing legitimate questions from whistleblowers and journalists. ‘But it would also answer key questions about the prosecution process, including the plea deal that benefitted the SNP, and whether any public money was stolen.’ First Minister John Swinney has refused to say if he would appear before the SAC Murrell, 61, embezzled £400,310 from SNP funds between 2010 and 2022, when married to Nicola Sturgeon. For most of the time, she was SNP leader and First Minister. Despite first instructing his legal team to ‘explore the possibility’ of a guilty plea with prosecutors on 3 March, Murrell only pleaded guilty in court on 25 May, sparing the SNP a hugely damaging controversy ahead of the election. Mr Swinney later admitted SNP financial controls were not ‘adequate’ and VAT may have been illegally reclaimed by the party on the back of Murrell’s fake purchases. But he refused to support an inquiry, insisting the police investigation into Murrell was enough. He also shrugged off claims by SNP figures that they were ‘shut down’ by Ms Sturgeon and smeared by her allies when they tried to raise questions about the party’s finances in 2021. Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, who proposed the Holyrood inquiry, said: ‘Faced with the opportunity to have an inquiry into one of the greatest scandals in Scottish political history, the SNP and the Greens have shamefully teamed up to continue the very culture that enabled Murrell to commit his crimes. ‘The people of Scotland deserve better than this sleazy attempt to hide from scrutiny.’ His deputy leader Dame Jackie Baillie said a Westminster-led inquiry was now ‘likely to be taken forward’. In a bad-tempered debate, MSPs dragged up their rivals’ scandals from the last two decades and accused one another of acting in bad faith. Ross Greer and the Greens opted to back John Swinney Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP Willie Rennie accused the SNP of being ‘deaf’ to criticism and failing to realise the depth of its problems. He said: ‘This has cut through. People understand that this is serious. For goodness’ sake, just listen to what people are saying.’ But SNP parliamentary business minister Jamie Hepburn said there was ‘an obvious conflict of interest in parties investigating each other’, adding: ‘I don’t think that would be a good precedent to set.’ After Labour’s motion was rejected, SNP MSPs backed the Green plan of ‘an independent review into party political finances’ to help restore public trust. Its remit is ‘the funding of all political parties’, including big-money donors and secretive funding. The Greens also called for ‘the devolution of power over the regulation of political parties and their funding’ if any review recommendations ‘require legislative change’. Mr Swinney, who missed the debate and voted remotely, accused his opponents of being ‘cynical’. He said: ‘Labour tried to exploit the fact that the SNP has been a victim of a crime for their own political advantage, but their cynical stunt has boomeranged spectacularly. ‘The SNP has nothing to fear from a properly independent review.’ MSPs ultimately voted by 71 to 50 in favour of the Green plan. Scottish Greens co-leader Ross Greer said: ‘At a time when billionaires and bad faith actors are trying to buy political influence and corrupt our politics, it is important that every political party is held to high standards of financial transparency.’ Scottish transparency tsar David Hamilton said any publicly funded independent inquiry into political party finances should be covered by freedom of information law. Former SNP MP Joanna Cherry, KC, called SNP MSPs ‘sheep’ for backing the Greens. Earlier, at Prime Minister’s Questions, Keir Starmer had backed a Holyrood inquiry. He said: ‘These are clearly serious, legitimate questions that deserve answers and scrutiny.’ The Scottish Affairs Committee (SAC), which deferred a decision on its own inquiry until after Wednesday night’s vote, will discuss its next move next Wednesday. It put pressure on the Electoral Commission to check if public cash was stolen. The watchdog gave the SNP more than £2.2 million in grants while Murrell was robbing it. Mr Swinney has admitted the money may have gone into a bank account Murrell controlled. SAC chair Labour MP Patricia Ferguson will write to the Commons Speaker, Clerk and Electoral Commission ‘to explore further the potential implication of public funds in the embezzlement of SNP funds’. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. 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? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.