Shamed former SNP chief exec Peter Murrell bought campervan just WEEKS after whistleblower raised concern over finances

By GRAHAM GRANT, SCOTTISH HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR Published: 20:20, 9 June 2026 | Updated: 20:20, 9 June 2026 Peter Murrell paid off the bill for the motorhome he bought with stolen cash weeks after a whistleblower warned him against silencing critics who had raised concern about party finances. David Henry, a former SNP candidate for national secretary and a local branch secretary, emailed Murrell to tell him: ‘For a democratic party to be seen to be preventing its membership from having any say in its operations is not a good look and will cost us more members.’ The email was sent on November 2, 2020, the month before Murrell settled the bill for the £124,000 vehicle which was seized by Police Scotland from his mother’s home in Fife in 2023 - with only four miles on the clock. Mr Henry wrote to the then SNP chief executive ‘in the hope that a positive way forward can be agreed on, before the membership turns on the party, which I believe is about to happen’. He said: ‘I’m aware of the financial position of the party, as I am sure you are as well, and that it is likely to get worse.’ The High Court in Edinburgh heard last week that Murrell made three payments for the motorhome totalling £12,500 as a deposit with his SNP charge card, with the balance of £112,050 paid by him in four direct transfers from the SNP account on December 7, 2020 - just over a month after Mr Henry’s email. David Henry wrote to Peter Murrell warning him about the SNP's operations Mr Henry, who has compared the SNP to a ‘criminal syndicate’, said he had launched an ultimately unsuccessful legal action against the party after Joanna Cherry, then an SNP MP, was blocked from running for Holyrood. He said: ‘Despite me giving ample opportunity to fix things, with even an offer to withdraw my simple legal procedure [the legal case] and help repair the party, Peter Murrell ignored the process and bought the campervan after I started legal proceedings. ‘He must have thought he was invincible and couldn’t get caught especially - while his wife Nicola Sturgeon was shutting down questions and the party’s finances.’ Mr Henry said: ‘It’s disgusting he knew there was a legal case which had started yet he carried on regardless. ‘I fear there’s much more to uncover - and that’s why John Swinney is refusing to support any investigation.’ Mr Henry said he did not receive a reply from Murrell - and his concerns were met with a ‘wall of silence’ from the SNP. In his email, Mr Henry told Murrell: ‘I do not want to see the party damaged and want to see the current situation turned around. ‘I’m aware that others are about to go public about certain issues and this will be explosive and very damaging. ‘However, this can be prevented if things are seen to be put right.’ He said he feared the ‘drop in party membership will accelerate’ without greater ‘transparency’. The former SNP activist added: ‘I fear that things are becoming unmanageable and events will soon overtake the party.’ Mr Henry told the Mail: ‘A number of complaints from SNP members had been sent to me while I was campaigning to be the SNP national secretary. ‘It included that SNP HQ had interfered with the selection of candidates, officer bearers had been suspended, and other untoward things had happened. ‘Many branches had written complaints about the rule change in 2020 blocking Joanna Cherry from standing for Holyrood by the national executive committee - few got even an acknowledgement.’ In July 2020, Ms Cherry ruled out standing for former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson’s Holyrood seat at the 2021 election. Ms Cherry, then the SNP’s Edinburgh South West MP, was planning to seek support from her party to challenge for the Edinburgh Central constituency, but a rule change approved by the SNP’s governing body meant she would have to resign as an MP first. She has since become a vocal critic of the SNP and has called for a public inquiry into the Murrell embezzlement scandal. Scottish Tory deputy leader Rachael Hamilton said: ‘It shows how brazen Peter Murrell was that after SNP colleagues had cottoned on to problems with the party’s finances, he increased his criminal activity by splashing out on a £124,000 motorhome. The infamous campervan is removed from Peter Murrell's mother's house ‘It shows utter contempt for the people whose donations he was supposed to protect – and supreme confidence that he wouldn’t be caught. ‘John Swinney and Nicola Sturgeon have serious questions to answer about why they swept this issue under the carpet when alarm bells were being rung, enabling Murrell to continue his crime spree with impunity. ‘Their inaction speaks volumes about the culture of secrecy at the top of the SNP.’ Murrell, 61, admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from his party’s funds and will be sentenced on June 23. 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