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Monday 1 June 2026

Nicola Sturgeon not sorry for husband's theft of party funds

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Nicola Sturgeon has refused to apologise for “somebody else’s crimes” after her estranged husband admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from the SNP’s coffers. Peter Murrell, who was the party’s chief executive, stole the money between 2010 and 2022, using it to buy items that ranged from the luxurious to the mundane. He is due to be sentenced in June. Sturgeon insists she did not know about Murrell’s crimes. She told the BBC that she did not question the appearance of expensive items in their home since they were both on “high salaries”, had no children and rarely went on holiday. As a result, she believed they could afford “anything that I was seeing in my house”. Her claims have been met by scepticism from opposition parties, which are demanding an independent inquiry into the SNP’s finances.

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