STEPHEN DAISLEY: It turns out Reform and the SNP aren't all that different. Scrutiny is met with contempt, denial... or dishonesty

By STEPHEN DAISLEY, SCOTTISH DAILY MAIL SKETCH WRITER Published: 20:21, 12 July 2026 | Updated: 20:21, 12 July 2026 The SNP spends so much time on its high horse it’s a wonder they don’t all get vertigo. A party which prised the Scottish middle classes away from Labour by posing as the more principled outfit, the SNP long since bought into its self-created mythology of a party defined by decent Scottish values, not like those ethically compromised wrong’uns at Westminster. So we can be forgiven a spot of schadenfreude as these modern-day Holy Willies find themselves bogged down in financial scandal at the same time as their English boogeyman Nigel Farage and responding to scrutiny in much the same ill-tempered, high-handed way. When the fate of more than £600,000 raised for a second independence referendum was first called into question, there were furious denials from the party’s top brass. Now its former chief executive Peter Murrell resides at His Majesty’s pleasure for embezzling funds and spending the cash on everything from a motorhome and high-end coffee machines to gold-nibbed pens and Sherlock Holmes DVDs. The Nationalist hierarchy was similarly defiant when the prospect was raised of refunds for supporters who chipped into a ring-fenced referendum kitty that turned out not to be ring-fenced for a referendum. Asked about members getting their money back, Humza Yousaf said: ‘We’re not reimbursing people for the donations that they have made.’ He said this in April 2023, when he was the First Minister of Scotland, a fact that, three years on, I still struggle to process. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage announces his resignation as an MP First Minister John Swinney initially rejected calls to reimburse donors This was still the party line as recently as May, when John Swinney rejected calls to reimburse rank-and-file Nationalists, telling reporters: ‘We don’t have that money, it’s been stolen from us.’ Tunes were changed this week after Stuart Campbell, who runs the Wings over Scotland blog, commissioned a legal opinion from Roddy Dunlop, KC, the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates. Dunlop reviewed the evidence that the SNP raised funds for a referendum campaign but spent at least some of it on other purposes. He concluded that the referendum donations ‘created a trust’ which was ‘deliberately and dishonestly breached’ and the donors were ‘entitled to repayment together with damages for the fraudulent breach’. Should litigants bring a ‘civil claim for fraudulent breach of trust’ against the SNP, the case would be ‘close to irresistible’ in court. The next thing, and you’re not going to believe this, the SNP was offering folk their cash back. A statement said: ‘A small number of donors to this independence campaign requested refunds and all those making a legitimate request received a full refund. Anyone else who donated and wishes their money back can request a refund by contacting the SNP.’ A pithier press release would have just said ‘Please don’t sue us’, in 90-point font, ALLCAPS, with a picture of a sad-eyed kitten underneath. Fair play to the SNP, though. Finally, a party with the integrity to do the right thing just as soon as all other legal avenues have been exhausted. The Nationalists’ intolerance of scrutiny and accountability has been echoed in recent days by Reform UK amid unhelpful headlines over Nigel Farage’s 2024 receipt of £5million from Christopher Harborne, a crypto-currency billionaire, and his decision not to register the transaction with parliamentary authorities after becoming an MP. Even more unhelpful is a reported police investigation into £500,000 in donations from the mother of convicted fraudster George Cottrell. Shamed party chief Peter Murrell was jailed for five years The luxury motorhome that was bought with embezzled funds As ever, we should allow all investigations to take their course before forming any conclusions. My point is about the absolute tantrum that Reform has been throwing over journalists looking into its financial affairs. The invective aimed at newspaper hacks for doing their jobs has been bilious, particularly in the case of Gabriel Pogrund. He writes for another title but he is a fair and scrupulous reporter and the attacks on him have been more than a little reminiscent of the treatment doled out to journalists who get on the wrong side of the SNP, a subject on which I have some experience. Reform hopes to form the next government, with Farage as prime minister. Of course the party is coming under scrutiny. This is the very definition of public interest journalism and vital to the health of our democracy. For as long as there have been newspapers the people in power and those who aspire to be in power have bewailed their cruel persecution at the hands of the Press. Newspapers can and do get things wrong; no one is denying that. But when good-faith attempts to get answers from the politicians who aim to lead the country are met with rage and indignation, it’s not the newspapers that suffer but our national politics. When politicians take offence to being asked for accountability and transparency, when they react to political journalism as though it were lèse-majesté, we should see that for the massive red flag that it is. We may be a constitutional monarchy but that monarch is not Mr Farage. Ordinarily the SNP would be lording Reform’s present difficulties over its Scottish leader Malcolm Offord, and the other Scottish leaders of pro-unity parties, as emblematic of Westminster sleaze. But pointing out the mote in Reform’s eye is difficult when the SNP has a beam the size of a railway sleeper sticking out of its own face. It is no coincidence that both these mobs are populist parties, albeit the aesthetics are different, nor is it irrelevant that each has prospered by presenting itself as a noble insurgent storming a corrupt political establishment. Parties that rise in self-righteousness tend to fall in hypocrisy. These days, in Scotland at least, the SNP is the establishment. It has sustained itself in power for two decades and is the party of the dominant class. And now that it’s running the show, the SNP thinks it can do whatever it wants and get away with it. Scrutiny, whether by journalists or even pro-independence activists, is met with contempt, denial, and sometimes plain dishonesty. The SNP is for decency in politics, just for other parties. Parties, incidentally, like Reform, which John Swinney has attempted to exclude from Scotland’s political mainstream with a cordon sanitaire. It turns out, though, that the SNP and Reform aren’t all that different. They claim to be fighting an unaccountable establishment on behalf of the people, but when accountability is asked of them they turn defensive. They have spent so long claiming a monopoly on straight-talking and plain-dealing that they no longer believe they must earn these reputations by their actions. This is why you should never put your faith in a political party or politician. Do not form tribal attachments to them as though they were football teams. They will all let you down in the end, even the ones that try not to – especially the ones that try not to. Power is a drug and politicians addicts. They’ll say anything to get it and will become frantic at the possibility of withdrawal. Whenever a politician lashes out at scrutiny, even one you admire, do not lash out along with them. It’s their addiction. Don’t be their enabler.