RACHAEL HAMILTON: Eventually the truth will come out and Nicola Sturgeon's legacy will be in the gutter

Published: 19:49, 14 July 2026 | Updated: 19:49, 14 July 2026 Should we really be surprised by Nicola Sturgeon confirming she won’t release her statement she gave to police as part of Operation Branchform? After all this is the same Sturgeon who promised to hand over all her WhatsApp messages relating to the pandemic to the Covid inquiry, only for it to be revealed that she had been routinely deleting them all. Ahead of becoming First Minister, she promised to be the most accessible individual who had held the office.  If ever a promise has aged badly by a politician, then it was that pledge made by her in 2014. Her behaviour in the top job in Scottish politics when it came to being open and transparent was horrendous.  That attitude and utter contempt for telling the public the truth is only continuing now she has departed elected politics. There is nothing stopping Sturgeon from publishing the statement she provided to police. Indeed, it would be the decent and right thing to do. Only just over a month ago, in an interview with the BBC, she said that she couldn’t think of anything in the statement that she would not want published. Was this another of Sturgeon’s slips of the tongue or infamous sudden bouts of memory loss? Secrecy, evasiveness, spin and bluster were the hallmarks of Nicola Sturgeon’s reign as First Minister, writes Scottish Conservatives Deputy Leader Rachel Hamilton By now refusing to publish this statement, she is only fuelling suspicions among Scots about what she has to hide about what she knew and when about her crooked husband Peter Murrell. The idea that she was fully co-operating with the police and the investigation into her party’s finances, while sitting in stony silence for hours in a police station, is laughable. But if she truly believes she was doing everything she could to help the investigation, then why now hide behind statements from her lawyer and say that this statement will forever be hidden from view? We have already seen that she’s enjoying her new life in London. She has no interest in being dragged back into scandal and hopes that statements from her lawyer will make it all go away. Secrecy. Evasiveness. Spin. Bluster. These were the hallmarks of Sturgeon’s reign as First Minister and a leopard never changes its spots, even hundreds of miles away from Bute House. Finding out what was in her police statement, or what she said when being questioned, or what she knew about Murrell’s criminal activities for over a decade, are all reasons why there must be a robust and independent inquiry into this scandal. But John Swinney refuses to grant one. He’s terrified too, just like the woman he was slavishly loyal to, about what might be uncovered. The SNP can keep thinking of ways to stonewall attempts to reveal the truth about the rotten culture that enabled Murrell’s crimes for over a decade. But eventually the truth will come out. And when it does Sturgeon’s already tarnished legacy will be well and truly in the gutter.