The extraordinary shopping list of Peter Murrell, the estranged husband of Nicola Sturgeon, was revealed today after he admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from the SNP.

The 61-year-old, who was SNP chief executive for 22 years, is behind bars after admitting his guilt at the High Court in Edinburgh this morning.

He used the cash to buy a £125,000 campervan and other luxury goods including Lalique salt and pepper grinders worth £2,600 and Fortnum and Mason advent calendars at £200 a pop.

Murrell was shown to have developed a liking for pricey fountain pens, whisky and vacuums as he compulsively bought items over the years.

He also splashed cash on DVD box sets, games and games consoles during his spending sprees.

It may have started small with the purchase of two Ali Baba laundry baskets, worth £70.89, in September 2010, among the first.

But the buys became increasingly extravagant with more than £12,000 splashed on Apple brands nine years later.

Murrell purchased games and consoles to the tune of £419.18 in November 2011. In January 2013, Murrell spent £75 on '2 x Borgen: The Complete Seasons One and Two DVD'.

He also bought a Volkswagen Golf in 2016 using £16,489 from the party coffers.

In March 2017, he bought a Montblanc white gold £4,225 fountain pen, and on May 28 that year he splashed out £4,555.25 on a white luxury Bremont watch. Just days later, on June 10, he bought the same watch in black, costing £4,795.

Just ahead of Christmas 2018, he spent almost £500 on a Dyson vacuum and the following month, he paid £205.39 for 15-year-old Laphroaig and £149.99 for the same vintage Macallan whisky.

In January 2020 he forked out £2,618.16 on two Feuilles Pepper and Salt Grinders from Lalique UK. The same years he bought a Niesmann and Bischoff motorhome using £124,550 of SNP funds and spent another £54,000 of the party's cash to buy a Jaguar I-Pace.

Other items include The Origins of Totalitarianism for £159.99 from The Folio Society Ltd purchased in March 2022.

In March 2024, he spent £49.80 on a Le Creuset wine pourer, a Le Creuset champagne and sparkling wine bottle opener and a Le Creuset three in one corkscrew.

That November he bought a £1,299 Miele coffee machine and just before Christmas that year he paid £42.99 on Grand Theft Auto V for the PS4.

Murrell was accused of embezzling funds totalling £400,310.65 between August 2010 and January 2023, a period which included Ms Sturgeon's nine-year tenure as SNP leader and first minister of Scotland. 

Ms Sturgeon is facing mounting demands to explain what she knew about her estranged husband's use of SNP funds.

Critics said it was inconceivable the former first minister and party leader was unaware of what Murrell was doing over the space of more than a decade when they ruled the SNP as a power couple. 

Ms Sturgeon, 55, was investigated by Police Scotland about the missing funds but the force revealed last year that she would face no further action. She denies any wrongdoing.

This afternoon she said being 'deceived and let down by a husband I loved and trusted' had caused her 'acute pain'.

'To be clear, I had no knowledge or suspicion whatsoever that he was using SNP funds for personal purposes,' she added.

'I am utterly appalled that he did so and cannot begin to understand why.'

Later, in a statement released through her lawyer, Aamer Anwar, Ms Sturgeon said she and Murrell had separate bank accounts and she had no access to his financial records.

She said: 'Today the media is reporting details of items that my former husband has now admitted buying with SNP funds.

'I have seen questions raised about how I could not have known about this.

'I want to reiterate that I had no knowledge or suspicion whatsoever that personal items had been purchased using SNP funds.

'I was cleared of any wrongdoing after a lengthy and thorough investigation.'

She continued: 'In relation to many of the items in question, for example expensive watches and games consoles, I was not aware of them having been purchased at all.

'Indeed, in relation to the item of largest value – a campervan – I was not aware of its existence until it featured in the police investigation in early 2023, nor was it parked in our driveway as has been claimed by some.

'In respect of any items I was aware of Peter having purchased, I had no reason to doubt that he had used his own money.

'We were both earning high salaries and, due to the responsibilities of my job, rarely socialised or went on holidays.

'We had separate bank accounts and I had no access to his financial records.'

But Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said 'thieving magpie' Murrell 'used vast sums of the stolen cash to feather the marital nest' they shared.

He added: 'His crime spree took place right under her nose over many years while they jointly held a vice-like grip on the SNP.

'You would need to be a particularly gullible member of Nicola Sturgeon's fan club to swallow her preposterous protestations of ignorance about her husband's criminal racket.'

And Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: 'It is inconceivable that Nicola Sturgeon knew nothing about the large-scale fraud, which she benefited from, taking place under her nose in both her party and her home. 

'It was Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP party machine that attempted to close ranks and shut down scrutiny when questions about the finances started to emerge and we need to know why.'

She added that John Swinney, the First Minister and current SNP leader, also 'needs to come clean and explain what he knew and what the party knew'.

At a press conference in Edinburgh later on Monday, Mr Swinney - who was Ms Sturgeon's deputy during her time in office - said he shared the 'overwhelming anger felt by SNP members' over Murrell's behaviour.

He said: 'Peter Murrell's guilty plea confirms that the Scottish National Party has been the victim of embezzlement of hundreds of thousands of pounds of funds, provided by SNP members.

'This is an admission of a terrible breach of trust and an overwhelming betrayal by the man entrusted to be the party's chief executive.'

The SNP leader said party funds were raised from 'thousands of dedicated SNP activists', and added: 'Those are the people in my thoughts when I talk about betrayal.'

'Today I am horrified, I am betrayed,' Mr Swinney continued. 'I am also resolute about the future.

'I returned to the SNP leadership two years ago because I could see the party I loved was not in the best place.

'I promised that we would get back on track. A key part of that has been the process to strengthen our governance structures and our party finances.

'That has been an ongoing process over a number of years.'

Joanna Cherry, a former SNP MP, called for Mr Swinney to be replaced as Scotland's First Minister and leader of the SNP.

She said she did not believe Mr Swinney would be able to make the changes required within the SNP and said the party needed a new leader 'who will break with the past'.

'I think if the party is to advance and if the cause of independence is to advance, somebody needs to address what went on during the Sturgeon years and distance the modern SNP from that,' she added.

'John Swinney has proven himself incapable of doing that and so I'd like to see a new leader.'

Ms Cherry said Scotland's Transport Secretary Stephen Flynn should replace Mr Swinney as SNP leader.

Murrell arrived at the High Court wearing a sombre black suit with a black tie, and was remanded in custody after entering his shock guilty plea.

It will send shockwaves through nationalist ranks, and comes just weeks after the SNP retained its grip of power on Holyrood in the Scottish Parliament elections. 

Details of the charges he faced became public in February, months after he split from his wife.

The former party boss was first arrested in April 2023 as part of the police investigation into the SNP's finances, and was charged in April 2024.

He appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in March 2025 where he faced a charge of embezzlement, making no plea.

The indictment included allegations that in 2020 Murrell used party funds to buy a £124,550 motorhome for his own personal use.

Until he stood down in 2023 during the leadership race to succeed Ms Sturgeon, Murrell had been chief executive of the SNP for more than 20 years.

They had previously been one of the most powerful couples in UK politics for many years, with Ms Sturgeon serving for more than eight years as Scottish first minister and SNP leader, while Murrell was the chief executive of the party.

In January last year, Ms Sturgeon announced she and Murrell had 'decided to end' their marriage.

Murrell's conviction is the result of a police investigation called Operation Branchform, which was first launched in 2021.

The operation investigated the SNP's funding and finances and involved several high-profile arrests.

The policing cost of the long-running investigation reached more than £2million.

Murrell was once half of Scotland's most influential power couple as Ms Sturgeon's husband.

As the SNP's long-standing chief executive, he oversaw the party's rocketing rise in popularity and a large influx of new members around the 2014 independence referendum.

Everything changed in the months following Ms Sturgeon's surprise decision to stand down as first minister and party leader in February 2023.

A row over party membership numbers forced Murrell's resignation as chief executive, a position he had held for more than 20 years.

Then in April – even more dramatically – police raided the couple's home near Glasgow as part of an investigation into the SNP's finances known as Operation Branchform.

He would later be arrested and charged with embezzlement.

Until he stepped down in 2023, Murrell had been at the helm of the party since 1999 and was responsible for its day-to-day running.

While he was never an elected politician, the party official had previously worked in the constituency office of former SNP leader Alex Salmond.

He met Ms Sturgeon through their work with the SNP in the late 1980s and they were first announced to be in a relationship in early 2003.

They married in 2010 in Glasgow, while Ms Sturgeon was deputy leader of the party and serving as the Scottish Government's health secretary.

Ms Sturgeon – who is six years his junior – rose through the ranks after first being elected to the Scottish Parliament in 1999.

The SNP won power as a minority government in 2007, often attributed to Murrell's organisational skills, and made huge electoral gains in the 2011 election.

After the late Mr Salmond's resignation in 2014 following the result of the independence referendum, Ms Sturgeon was elected unopposed as successor.

Questions were raised at the time about the close working and personal relationship between husband and wife, but they insisted there was a strict division of power within the party's governance.

Speaking in a documentary released last year, Mr Salmond said he had privately expressed concerns to the couple that the press would exploit their relationship if things went badly for the SNP.

When Ms Sturgeon stood down in February 2023, it was initially assumed that Murrell would continue as party chief executive.

But he resigned the following month after incorrect membership figures were briefed to the media – it later emerged that 30,000 SNP members had left in a year.

During the latter years of Ms Sturgeon's leadership, some within the SNP had complained of a lack of transparency around the party finances.

In June 2021 the then-first minister said she was 'not concerned' about the finances despite two high-profile resignations.

Allegations were made that hundreds of thousands of pounds raised for Scottish independence campaigning was diverted elsewhere.

Then, in July 2021, Police Scotland said they were opening an investigation after seven complaints were made in relation to SNP donations.

This investigation led to the scenes of a blue tent being erected outside Murrell's house in April 2023 as police carried out simultaneous searches of the property and the SNP's headquarters in Edinburgh.

In January 2025, Ms Sturgeon announced that she and Murrell were ending their marriage 'with a heavy heart'.

She said they 'still care deeply for each other and always will'.

Murrell has not commented publicly on the matter.

Ms Sturgeon stepped down as Glasgow Southside MSP before this year's Scottish Parliament elections in May.