Yes Scotland and the 'missing' £1.5m

By TOM GORDON, SCOTTISH DAILY MAIL DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR Published: 21:50, 14 July 2026 | Updated: 21:50, 14 July 2026 Police Scotland are assessing claims that £1.5million went ‘missing’ from the official Yes campaign for independence a decade ago after speaking to activists. Sean Clerkin and David Henry, whose complaints about SNP finances led to the jailing of party boss Peter Murrell, handed over a dossier in a 90-minute meeting in Edinburgh. The pair said officers told them it would take two to four weeks to consider the paperwork before deciding whether to launch a criminal investigation. ‘You do not have to be Columbo to spot the unaccountable sums of money,’ Mr Henry said, referring to the famous TV detective. A Police Scotland spokesman said: ‘Information has been received and it is being assessed.’ Scottish Tory deputy leader Rachael Hamilton said: ‘These allegations are incredibly serious and it is right they are being considered by the police. ‘John Swinney and senior SNP figures cannot keep running away from the serious questions that remain unanswered. ‘They must finally back a robust independent inquiry to ensure the whole truth about this scandal and any potential further fraudulent activity is uncovered.’ Yes Scotland Ltd voluntarily provided ‘full sets of accounts’ to the police for 2014, the year of the referendum, and 2013 and 2015 on Monday. Lawyer Aamer Anwar, acting on behalf of the campaign’s ex-chief executive Blair Jenkins, said claims of ‘missing’ money were ‘false’ and ‘defamatory’. He added: ‘The so-called “missing” £1.5 million was in fact the operational costs in the first year of Yes Scotland. Even Columbo could have spotted there was no smoking gun.’ Mr Anwar attacked a ‘desperate attempt to link Peter Murrell’s criminal conduct in the SNP to the financial affairs of Yes Scotland’. Murrell was sentenced to five years and three months in jail last month after pleading guilty to embezzling £400,000 from SNP funds between 2010 and 2022. He was the party’s chief executive and the husband of Nicola Sturgeon at the time. Nicola Sturgeon in 2014 as Alex Salmond addresses an event 17 years on from Scotland voting 'yes' for  devolution David Henry (left) and Sean Clerkin speak to the media outside Fettes Police Station on Tuesday He was caught after Mr Henry and Mr Clerkin complained to police in 2021 about SNP fundraising, and officers stumbled on his crime spree. Mr Henry, who once stood to be SNP national secretary, flagged concerns about the finances of Yes Scotland Ltd to the police earlier this month. In Tuesday's follow-up meeting at Fettes Police Station, he handed over company accounts he said contained ‘unexplained’ sums of over £1.5million and ‘significant errors’. Speaking afterwards, he said his concerns were triggered by the SNP leadership refusing to back an independent inquiry into the Murrell scandal. He said: ‘I thought, Oh my God, there’s a massive hole here. ‘The bottom line is it doesn’t add up. We need all the accounts opened up.’ Mr Henry, 61, who failed vetting as an SNP candidate in 2019 and later stood for Alba and the Workers Party for Holyrood, denied he had ‘a grudge against the SNP’. He also admitted ‘it might all be a misunderstanding’. Asked what John Swinney should do, Mr Henry quipped: ‘Resign.’ He then said the SNP leader should open up all party accounts and Yes Scotland financial material from the referendum era for ‘full transparency’. Mr Clerkin claimed a detective told him there were ‘a lot of unanswered questions’. Although nominally cross-party, Yes Scotland Ltd was dominated by SNP money and personnel. But it rapidly proved dysfunctional, with multiple directors exiting, and despite aiming to be self-funding it ended the referendum broke and needed a £825,000 bail-out from the SNP. Mr Henry highlighted a note in Yes Scotland’s 2014 accounts which said its directors had decided to treat donations as ‘income when received’. An independence march in Glasgow in 2025 It went on: ‘This has resulted in deferred income as at April 30, 2013 being reduced from £878,978 to £nil and has increased other income by £878,978 from £1,524,998 to £2,403,976.’ Mr Henry claimed the £1.5million sum referred to was unaccounted for as no ‘other income’ was mentioned in later Yes Scotland accounts. Scottish Labour deputy leader Dame Jackie Baillie said: ‘There are clearly very significant, outstanding questions to be answered about this scandal. ‘Public trust has been eroded by the culture of secrecy and cover-up that the SNP has presided over for years. ‘They should do the right thing, come clean, and set out exactly what they knew and when about this murky affair.’ An SNP spokesman said: ‘The criminal actions of Peter Murrell was uncovered by a complex and extensive police investigation which found the SNP was the victim of embezzlement.” ‘Yes Scotland Ltd is and was an entirely separate entity to the SNP. Throughout the referendum campaign Yes Scotland was run by an independent board of directors. ‘As everyone knows, the SNP was a major partner in Yes Scotland and campaigned with Yes Scotland during the referendum.’ Mr Anwar said there had been ‘a very basic misunderstanding of accounts and Yes Scotland’s financial statements’. He said: ‘All of the income received by Yes Scotland is fully accounted for and it is grossly defamatory to say otherwise. To make it perfectly clear, Mr Murrell never at any time had access to Yes Scotland’s accounts. ‘On the 13th of July, Yes Scotland on a voluntary basis provided information to Police Scotland, to assist them in their assessment of a complaint that had reportedly been made. ‘Full sets of accounts for 2013, 14, 15 were also provided to the police.’