SNP posts job ad to replace Sturgeon’s husband - with ‘experience of financial management’ essential

 Peter Murrell giving evidence

Police Scotland are investigating the whereabouts of £600,000 in donations to the SNP

PA
Sam Montgomery

By Sam Montgomery


Published: 09/06/2023

- 10:56

Chief exec role advertised at £95,000 as SNP look to pay their way out of disrepute

The SNP has published a job ad for the role of chief executive, specifying the need for “demonstrable experience of financial management”.

The position was previously held by Nicola Sturgeon’s husband, Peter Murrell, who after 22 years at the helm, resigned following investigations into SNP financing discrepancies.


In the job specification, the SNP stress the need for a “dynamic candidate” that takes on “responsibility for driving change in governance and transparency”.

Though it might have gone without saying, the SNP narrowed their search to those possessing “a strong commitment to Scottish independence”.

Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell

​Peter Murrell was chief executive for 22 years

PA

The litany of SNP scandals that brought down Murrell kicked off when the former chief executive took responsibility for misleading the media over a drop in party membership after the party denied reports it had lost 30,000 members.

Murrell was then arrested in April over investigations into SNP fundraising.

Police Scotland searched Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell’s home in Uddingston near Glasgow for two days and seized a £110,000 motorhome from outside Murrell’s mother’s house in Dunfermline.

Murrell was later released without charge pending further investigations.

This forms part of the wider police investigation into the SNP’s handling of over £600,000 in donations raised in 2017 for a second independence referendum.

Eagle-eyed onlookers raised suspicions when SNP accounts were lodged with Companies House in 2020 appearing to show that the party had just £97,000 in the bank despite the referendum never being held.

Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell's house being searched

Police searched Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell's home near Glasgow

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In April, the SNP appointed Stuart Mcdonald MP as treasurer after Colin Beattie, his predecessor, resigned after being arrested by police investigating SNP finances.

As with Murrell, Beattie was released without charge pending further investigations.

Despite damning polling data of late, the chief executive job advert remains cheery in describing the SNP as “one of the most successful political parties in Western Europe”.

Though it may have lost headway in the polls, it seems the SNP has not lost its sense of humour, calling for a candidate that “continues its electoral success” and helps “deliver the next phase of our development and success.”

Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell

SNP is looking to rebuild while investigations continue

PA

Also specified in the Sisyphean search, a candidate with skills in “budgetary management and reporting” and with a potential to “develop and drive strategies to ensure robust and transparent financial planning and reporting structures”.

The job advert comes following the announcement that Ian Blackford is set to stand down as an SNP MP at the next general election.

The 62-year-old, who entered the House of Commons after defeating former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy in 2015, will leave Parliament after almost a decade in Westminster.

According to polling data from YouGov, the SNP are set to fall from 48 seats to 27 at the next election.

YouGov said its findings suggest that recent bad news stories for the SNP, "including accusations of party mismanagement and potential criminal cases being brought against senior officials, have taken a serious toll".

Last week, senior SNP MP, Joanna Cherry, appeared at an Edinburgh Fringe Festival Event to berate the SNP as "intellectually dead from the neck up"

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