A former member of the SNP's ruling body has told how he tried to raise concerns over the party's financial transparency but was shut down by Nicola Sturgeon and her allies.
Roger Mullin, the former SNP MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, was a member ofthe SNP's national executive committee in the period leading up to the launch of Police Scotland's Operation Branchform investigation in July 2021 and after the probe was began.
Mr Mullin said after the police inquiry was launched he sought assurances that the party would co-operate fully with detectives.
"At the NEC meeting after the police announced their investigation, nothing came up, none of the office bearers reported on it, so I raised a question," Mr Mullin, 78, who joined the party aged 17, told The Times on Wednesday.
“I basically asked, ‘Can I be assured that the party will give full co-operation to the police inquiry?’ And the response to that was to close me down, on the spurious grounds that everything was now sub judice. They obviously didn’t want anything discussed. There was all sorts of manoeuvring at the time to prevent any questioning at all.”
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Mr Mullin, a long-standing transparency campaigner with expertise in corruption and money laundering, said it became apparent that Ms Sturgeon and her allies on the body did not want questions raised about financial matters.
In the years leading up to the launch of the police investigation, independence activists began to ask about what had happened to more than £600,000 of donations made to fundraising campaigns for a second independence referendum.
Their concerns mounted when the SNP accounts published in October 2020 showed the party had only £97,000 in the bank.
Mr Mullin said at “every meeting” NEC members elected to improve transparency would seek answers, but would be consistently shut down.
He said Kirsten Oswald, then the SNP’s business convenor, who would chair NEC meetings, was among those who sought to dismiss questions.
Ms Oswald, a former MP, was elected to Holyrood this month and was appointed last week by John Swinney as a justice minister.
“She didn’t encourage any scrutiny at all, she was obviously just a mouthpiece for Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell,” Mr Mullin said.
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Just months before the police probe was launched Ms Sturgeon told the NEC in March 2021 that the party’s finances had “never been stronger” and urged members to be “very careful” about suggesting there were “any problems” with them.
“There are no reasons for people to be concerned about the party’s finances and all of us need to be careful about not suggesting that there is,” she told the meeting in a video that was later leaked to the press.
Mr Mullin said that it would be relatively rare for Sturgeon to directly address issues around finances at NEC meetings, instead relying on loyal proxies to do it for her.
Critics remained in the minority, Mr Mullin said, with several in the “Sturgeon camp” on the NEC eager to “do whatever they thought she wanted done”.
“On the occasions when she did pipe up, like the incident in the video [of her speaking at the NEC meeting], she would just say ‘there is nothing to be seen here’,” Mr Mullin said.
“It was just ridiculous, and she was the accountable officer and ultimately responsible. But she turned her face against allowing any proper scrutiny. The way in which she behaved throughout the period was entirely inappropriate from a governance point of view.
“She will no doubt claim that she didn’t know [about her husband’s embezzlement from the party she led] … Why was she so against allowing the NEC to ask the important questions and exercise their governance powers? What was her motivation? She was protecting him by her attitude.”
Mr Mullin left the NEC after just one year, choosing not to stand for re-election. He said those who tried to scrutinise the leadership were “shunned” and were made out to be “troublemakers”.
He added: “There have been some small changes to governance, but in my view there’s still a fundamental need for radical change to ensure people elected to the NEC know their primary responsibility is to act on behalf of members, not individuals. There should now be a fully independent review, to make sure it is near-impossible that something like this could ever happen again.”
After Murrell's conviction, Ms Sturgeon released two separate statements in which she strongly denied any suspicion or knowledge of his crimes.
In the second of those statements, Ms Sturgeon said she and Murrell had separate bank accounts and she had no access to his financial records.
“I want to reiterate that I had no knowledge or suspicion whatsoever that personal items had been purchased using SNP funds,” she said.
Ms Sturgeon was arrested in connection with Operation Branchform on June 11, 2023. She was later released later in the day pending further investigation, and posted on social media that she knows “beyond doubt that I am, in fact, innocent of any wrongdoing”.
In March 2025 the investigation into Ms Sturgeon was dropped.
Mr Swinney said the former chief executive had been solely responsible for his actions and had gone to great lengths to cover up his actions, for example by faking evidence.
He also defended his appointment of Ms Oswald, saying there had been “no reason to believe” the chief executive would act in such a damaging way.
At Holyrood on Tuesday, Ms Oswald said: “It’s very clear where the wrongdoing lies and that lies with Peter Murrell. I don’t think I’m known as someone who shuts down debate.”
