The SNP’s Westminster leader has been warned he’ll be “defending the indefensible” if he refuses to back a parliamentary inquiry into the Peter Murrell scandal.
Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland Andrew Bowie has called on Dave Doogan, the sole Nationalist on the Scottish Affairs Committee (SAC), to do the right thing and back a probe into how the SNP’s former chief executive was able to embezzle more than £400,000 over several years.
The SAC meet tomorrow to discuss calls for them to investigate the failures in financial governance that allowed Nicola Sturgeon’s husband to steal from SNP funds, with Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat members all backing an inquiry.
Bowie says it’s essential to learn the lessons from Murrell’s crime spree, especially as taxpayers’ money may well have been involved, and that it fell to Westminster to investigate because of John Swinney’s “shameful and sinister refusal” to hold an inquiry at Holyrood.
Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland Andrew Bowie said: “The case for a parliamentary investigation into the Peter Murrell scandal is unanswerable.
“Dave Doogan must put country before party and give his backing to the SAC probe. If not, he’s defending the indefensible.
“We need to know whether there were any financial safeguards in place and, if so, why they failed to prevent Murrell stealing for years on end to fund his and Nicola Sturgeon’s lavish lifestyle.
“SNP donors deserve answers and so do the public, as it appears taxpayers’ money was stolen too.
“Senior figures in the SNP repeatedly raised concerns about the state of the party’s finances but John Swinney and Nicola Sturgeon swept them under the carpet. Why?
“There are lessons for all parties – not just the SNP – to learn from this scandal, in terms of internal governance.
“John Swinney’s shameful and sinister refusal to hold an investigation at Holyrood – with the backing of the craven Greens – means that it falls to Westminster to get to the bottom of this scandal. Because it’s not going away for as long as so many questions remain unanswered.”