Police are investigating claims Nicola Sturgeon personally refused to open up the SNP\u2019s finances to scrutiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Detectives have been given emails that outline new claims about the former first minister in their inquiry into \u00a3600,000 of missing donations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Police have already arrested her husband – and former party chief executive – Peter Murrell in their investigation and are now looking at allegations about Sturgeon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It claimed she rejected a suggestion from senior officials to hire a fundraising manager who would have scrutiny and oversight of money being donated to the party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And today the details of a video of Sturgeon angrily rejecting concerns about finances can also be disclosed by the Sunday Mail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: \u201cThis bombshell revelation goes to show just how central Nicola Sturgeon was to the secrecy and culture of cover-up that festered within the SNP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNicola Sturgeon has big questions to answer over her actions and Humza Yousaf must consider suspending her party membership and that of her husband, former Chief Executive Peter Murrell, until the investigation has been concluded.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The emails outlining Sturgeon\u2019s block of the appointment of a fundraising manager stem from June 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s two months after the Sunday Mail reported police were investigating fraud allegations in relation to a \u00a3600,000 referendum fund which was supposed to be \u201cringfenced\u201d but could not be accounted for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They show how the suggestion to hire a fundraising manager was made by the party\u2019s former treasurer Douglas Chapman during his short tenure and backed by current treasurer Colin Beattie as part of a review into transparency and governance in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They set out claims the idea was dismissed by Sturgeon with those doing the review were ordered to remove the suggestion from their final report by SNP deputy leader and former Justice Secretary Keith Brown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The emails, which are notes from an SNP governance review group from June 2021, state: \u201cCB [Colin Beattie] can see benefits of a fundraising manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cKB [Keith Brown] mentioned this was declined by NS [Nicola Sturgeon].<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another email is from Brown to a member of the review group, sent around a week after he received the notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dated June 28, 2021, he said he had shared the details of rejection of a fundraising manager \u201cin confidence\u201d and requested that the SNP member not tell anyone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An insider said: \u201cKeith Brown asked for that information to be excluded from the final report and for the fact that Nicola had refused the fundraising manager to be kept quiet and not shared with other members of the governance review team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFortunately the person who had made those notes and brought the issue up with Keith made us aware that this was going on and did inform others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe final report doesn\u2019t have this recommendation in it though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt had been ruled out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was something that Doug Chapman has suggested when he was interviewed after he resigned as Treasurer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cColin Beattie was asked what he thought about it and agreed that someone who would have oversight of the fundraised money and donations to the party would be a good idea and would help with financial transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final review report presented to the SNP\u2019s ruling body did not contain the fundraising manager’s suggestion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead, it suggests hiring a \u201cfundraising professional\u201d who would help to \u201cidentify new high and mid-level donors\u201d and work on \u201cincreasing the support of existing donors\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s understood police now have the emails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Sunday Mail approached Keith Brown, Douglas Chapman and Colin Beattie for comment but they did not respond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Police are investigating claims Nicola Sturgeon personally refused to open up the SNP\u2019s finances to scrutiny. Detectives have been given emails that outline new claims about the former first minister in their inquiry into \u00a3600,000 of missing donations. Police have already arrested her husband – and former party chief executive – Peter Murrell in their…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-scottish-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n