Scotland's Deputy First Minister Jenny Gilruth sidesteps questions about former boss Nicola Sturgeon

By TOM GORDON, SCOTTISH DAILY MAIL DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR Published: 19:10, 17 July 2026 | Updated: 19:23, 17 July 2026 The Deputy First Minister has failed to defend Nicola Sturgeon after a Tory MP accused her of lying and knowing about her estranged husband’s crime spree. Jenny Gilruth sidestepped questions about the former First Minister when asked about Sir David Davis’s Commons broadside on Thursday. Instead, she blasted the MP for using parliamentary privilege to make lurid claims about Ms Sturgeon without fear of being sued for defamation. Former Brexit Secretary Sir David said Ms Sturgeon had ‘stitched up’ his late friend Alex Salmond as part of a ‘cover-up’ about the SNP’s finances and her estranged husband being a ‘thief’. Sir David Davis claimed Nicola Sturgeon knew about her estranged husband Peter Murrell's crime spree   Deputy First Minister Jenny Gilruth sidestepped questions about the former First Minister Peter Murrell was jailed for more than five years last month for embezzling over £400,000 from the party while SNP chief executive. Ms Sturgeon strongly denied even suspecting he was a crook, despite the stream of luxury items that were delivered to the couple’s marital home. Asked about the comments on a visit to Glasgow on Friday, Ms Gilruth said: ‘David Davis, as I understand it, has made a number of comments under parliamentary privilege so I’m not going to comment on those. ‘I think if those were his views, perhaps he should have shared them publicly and not hidden behind parliamentary privilege, as seems to have been the case in this instance. ‘I think it’s fair to say that we had a court case in Scotland very recently, and of course there was a victim in relation to the trial of Peter Murrell, and that was the Scottish National Party.’ She added: ‘It’s well been documented in the press for the coverage over the last few weeks - the position of the government on these matters.’ A spokesman for Ms Sturgeon branded Sir David part of an ‘Old Boys Club’ that had been ‘spreading conspiracy theories’ on behalf of Mr Salmond since 2021, adding: ‘The fact that he hides like a coward behind the legal privilege of Westminster says everything we need to know about him.’