The SNP Must Be Held to Account Over the Embezzlement Scandal

Last Wednesday, something remarkable happened in Scotland. First Minister John Swinney finally, after six long years, admitted that the money collected in two campaign fundraisers – to be used solely for a future independence referendum and not for something else – had been used for… something else (“ongoing activities of the SNP”). In other words, the leader of the nation admitted his party had committed fraud. Moreover, by taking this new line, he also admitted by implication that his party had spent the last six years either refusing to comment, obfuscating, or just plain lying to the people of Scotland.

If you are wondering whether this may have been a careless slip from a man under huge pressure, his line was corroborated by former SNP MP John Nicholson in a Twitter exchange. Nor was it denied by current Health and Care Minister Angela Constance in an excruciating interview with BBC Radio Scotland – though if you can make any sense of Constance’s tangential responses at best, gobbledygook at worst, you are a better man than I.

One suspects a decision has been taken that the previous line of denial or deflection would no longer hold. One can only speculate as to why, but it may be that the SNP leadership – who are nothing if not ultra-cautious when their own personal interests are at stake – are now reasonably confident that they are past the point of maximum danger, and that the damage from the various strands of financial transgressions of the last nearly 10 years can be channelled towards one man: the dastardly, risible, luxury cruet connoisseur Peter Murrell – ‘the man with the money’.

There will be some vague promises of new governance structures, of lessons learned, and then careful packing of Holyrood’s committees to block any further probing. And that will be that – onwards and downwards, murky business as usual. Even Murrell, the fall guy, won’t necessarily fall very far, for he has apparently offered to pay back the sum he embezzled from his suspiciously fat pension fund, and may, it is rumoured, only face a token penalty. He is not even paying for his defence (legal aid – unbelievably). There will be no independent inquiry, and no compensation paid to defrauded donors. Indeed, it is the SNP who, according to the new line, are the true victims of all this, who will be reimbursed.

If this is the plan, it absolutely cannot stand. This is not a shoulder-shrug moment for Scotland – it is as serious as it gets, and it demands a determined and unified response from all who care about the governance of the nation. It requires ‘action this day’, and since the chance of any such action relies on the same compromised establishment doing the job they have singularly failed to do for the last six years (Police Scotland has already rejected fresh complaints that should have reopened the case), the responsibility falls on the media, the opposition parties (and if necessary, Westminster) and, most of all perhaps, on the people of Scotland.

As to the former, the mainstream Scottish media have finally woken up, at least to some extent, but the pressure must be maintained and must be relentless. And properly focused – the allure of Sturgeonism in the reporting must be resisted. It may be unwelcome news to Sturgeon herself, or lazy journalists who know her name in a headline guarantees clicks aplenty, but not everything is about her. Murrell’s embezzlement is only one wing of an enormous, rotten edifice that needs to be condemned, if not demolished. The disappearance of the ‘ring-fenced’ funds (fraud) has yet to be addressed. And never mind rival attractions like the World Cup – which John Swinney and three other boondoggling Scottish ministers have conveniently skedaddled off to – we need front-page articles on this every day.

As for parliamentarians, the same kind of tenacity is necessary, and the language needs to be as robust as possible. There is room for optimism here, as a few seem to have found their voice. Dame Jackie Baillie, Labour’s Deputy Leader, described the SNP as a “criminal enterprise masquerading as a political party”. The Scottish Tory leader, Russell Findlay, said that Swinney’s admission “surely destroys any residual trust in this shady political party whose tactics of dishonesty, intolerance and omertà increasingly resemble that of an organised crime group”.

That’s fighting talk. Now keep it up. How? Well, Meghan Gallacher of the Scottish Tories has pledged to raise the issue of a Scottish grooming gangs inquiry in parliament every single week until it happens. The same strategy could be employed by all opposition parties – in concert – on the issue of an independent inquiry (which the SNP is outrageously resisting) into their financial affairs. And it must be a comprehensive inquiry that considers all aspects and all areas of alleged criminality (too many to list here – but a possible cash-for-seats strand has just emerged). Nor must it just consider the SNP’s behaviour in isolation. The crucial question of the relationship between the Scottish Government and the Crown Office must be critically examined.

Basically, it is time to clean house.

But there should also be a plan B. If the SNP point-blank refuses, and Police Scotland and the Crown Office refuse to act, then Westminster must intervene. The last time I checked, Scotland was still in the Union, and the UK Government has a duty of care to all its citizens.

The Daily Telegraph has reported that the Scottish affairs committee is considering a probe into the SNP’s finances. £2.2 million in grants from the Electoral Commission entered SNP funds in the period when the Murrell fraud was ongoing, which undermines Swinney’s insistence that the SNP and its supporters were the only victims.

Conservative MP Harriet Cross, Labour’s Douglas Alexander (the Scottish Secretary) and Lib Dem committee member Angus Long have all expressed support for Westminster intervention if Holyrood’s structures prove incapable. Former SNP MP Joanna Cherry has said a Westminster probe is “increasingly likely”. Separately, Lord Foulkes, former Labour MP, has suggested Holyrood’s powers should be curtailed if the SNP refuses to cooperate on an inquiry.

As for the people of Scotland, the message is simple: for goodness’ sake, stop voting SNP. For whatever reason – tribal loyalty, voting-booth muscle memory, or just the mesmerising allure of the word ‘Scottish’ on the ballot – the SNP still rakes in the votes and remains the largest party in Scotland. The gravy train rumbles on. Nothing will change until it hits the buffers. People need to wake up to the fact that the SNP is not the party of Scotland, not the party of independence, but the party of third-rate, jumped-up parish councillors and sundry unemployable misfits. It serves only itself, at your – and the nation’s – expense.

The Aberdeen South by-election in a fortnight is a fortuitously timed opportunity for a mass withdrawal of support for the SNP (the by-election was triggered by the incumbent Stephen Flynn’s decision to switch to Holyrood). The contest is being trailed as focusing on energy and the SNP’s aversion to exploiting North Sea oil and gas reserves, but the integrity and probity of the ruling party ought to be key issues.

Allegations of corruption are so familiar in today’s SNP-run Scotland that there is a danger people simply stop noticing.

But inaction is not an option. Apathy is unacceptable. There is too much at stake.

It is tempting but simplistic to fall back on Joseph de Maistre’s ‘we get the government we deserve’. But at a moment of maximum weakness for the ruling clique of Scotland, failure to follow through would validate the French philosopher’s complacency.

That must not be allowed to happen. The SNP cannot be allowed to get off scot-free.

Philip Patrick is a freelance journalist based in Scotland.