The Peter Murrell scandal has rocked the SNP and shocked the public given the sheer scale and, indeed, strangeness of the fraud he committed. The former SNP chief executive, the estranged husband of former SNP leader and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, will be sentenced today after having admitted his guilt of a £400,000 embezzlement last month.
So, how did we get here? A timeline of the downfall of Peter Murrell...
By Steven Donn
2001: Peter Murrell appointed SNP’s chief executive
July 2010: Mr Murrell marries Nicola Sturgeon
September 2014: Ms Sturgeon becomes the SNP leader and Scotland’s First Minister – but keeps her husband in the chief executive post
October 2020: Questions first raised over party finances and missing donations
March 2021: Frank Ross, Allison Graham and Cynthia Guthrie resign from SNP’s finance and audit committee having denied access to the accounts
May 2021: Holyrood election victory with just one shy of majority. Party treasurer Douglas Chapman resigns citing lack of information to carry out in his role. Joanna Cherry MP resigns from the NEC amid ‘transparency’ concerns
June 2021: Colin Beattie takes over as party treasurer. Murrell loans the party £107,620 to help with ‘cash flow’
July 2021: Operation Branchform into SNP finances launched after complaints that ringfenced independence money has been spent elsewhere
December 2022: Details of Mr Murrell’s loan to the party emerge
February 2023: Ms Sturgeon announces she’s standing down as party leader and first minister
March 2023: Row over SNP membership figures with head of communications, Murray Foote resigning and Murrell following shortly after amid suggestion the NEC was threatening him with a vote of no confidence
April 2023: Murrell is arrested and questioned by officers in connection with Op Branchform. He is released without charge. The couple’s marital home is searched as is the party HQ in Edinburgh while the now famous motorhome is seized from outside Murrell’s mother’s house in Fife. Mr Beattie is arrested and released without charge later that month and subsequently leaves his role as the party treasurer
June 2023: Ms Sturgeon is arrested and released without charge pending further inquiries as part of Op Branchform
August 2023: Mr Foote returns to SNP as its chief executive (but leaves 14 months later)
April 2024: Murrell is re-arrested and charged in connection with embezzlement of SNP funds
May 2024: Police submit a standard prosecution report to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS)
January 2025: Ms Sturgeon announces she and Murrell are no longer together and are divorcing
March 2025: Police confirms Ms Sturgeon and Mr Beattie are facing no further action in connection with Op Branchform and are no longer under investigation. Ms Sturgeon announces she’ll step down at the 2026 Holyrood election
August 2025: SNP accounts show the party spent £100,790 on the seized campervan and its membership has dropped from the peak 125,691 in 2019 to just 56,011 on June 2025
February 2026: Murrell due in court accused of embezzling £459,046.49 between August 2010 and January 2023. The hearing is postponed to May 25 – after the Holyrood election. It emerges Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC had told First Minister John Swinney of Murrell’s charges around 10 months before they were made public
May 2026: The SNP wins the election but not majority. Ms Bain announces she is stepping down. Cost of Op Branchform revealed to be more than £2million. On May 26, Murrell appears at the High Court in Edinburgh and pleads guilty to an amended indictment admitting embezzling £400,310.65 from the SNP between August 2010 and October 2022
