Is she stalling? WFH Nicola Sturgeon takes two-hour driving lesson after deciding to skip Holyrood while facing calls to quit SNP over finance probe – as new leader Humza Yousaf bids to distract from meltdown by doubling council tax on second homes
- Emails suggest Sturgeon refused to open up the SNP’s finances to more scrutiny
- Video also revealed in 2021 she claimed party finances had ‘never been stronger’
Nicola Sturgeon was back behind the wheel today just weeks after giving up power – as she took a break from the SNP finances row engulfing her family to take a driving lesson.
The former first minister went out for a two hour spin today after it was revealed she will work from home this week when other MSPs return to Holyrood.
Ms Sturgeon will take part in proceedings in the Scottish Parliament ‘remotely’ amid mounting questions over the SNP finances under her leadership.
She is facing pressure to quit the part she led for eight years after a series of astonishing new allegations suggested she scuppered efforts by party officials to hire a fundraising manager to provide checks and oversight of donations.
Peter Murrell, Ms Sturgeon’s husband and the former chief executive of the SNP, was arrested last week by police investigating the whereabouts of more than £600,000 in donations.
The couple’s and their Glasgow home and the SNP headquarters in Edinburgh were both searched.
Her successor, Humza Yousaf, will today try to draw a veil over a tumultuous start to his term in office. He will unveil plans to double council tax for second homes in Scotland in a speech to trade union leaders.
The former first minister went out for a two hour spin today after it was revealed she will work from home this week when other MSPs return to Holyrood.
Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon will work ‘remotely’ this week as the Scottish Parliament returns from its Easter break.
Her husband, ex-SNP chief executive Peter Murrell. New video footage revealed Ms Sturgeon claimed in a 2021 meeting that the SNP’s finances had ‘never been stronger’. Some allege it reveals ‘everything that was wrong with the SNP under the control of her and Peter Murrell’.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=iXFGjl1qr1U%3Frel%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26hl%3Den-US
Humza Yousaf will today unveil plans to double council tax for second homes in Scotland in a speech to trade union leaders
The proposed changes would enable councils to charge up to double the full rate of council tax on second homes from April 2024, bringing them in line with long-term empty homes.
The proposal is part of a new consultation by the Scottish government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) to increase housing.
An SNP spokesman said: ‘In order to ensure the focus of this week is on the new First Minister setting out his priorities for the people of Scotland, Ms Sturgeon has always intended to participate remotely and intends to return to Holyrood in the near future.’
The party’s former Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, also said there was ‘no reason’ for Ms Sturgeon to step down, and branded the furore over her future a ‘media frenzy’.
New video footage released yesterday revealed that Ms Sturgeon claimed in a 2021 meeting that the SNP’s finances had ‘never been stronger’.
A senior party source told The Daily Telegraph they didn’t ‘see the advantages’ in Ms Sturgeon keeping her role as an MSP, and that the ‘pantomime’ of the SNP finances row would will make life in the Scottish parliament ‘very uncomfortable for her’.
The remarks come as senior SNP figures insisted the party remains ‘solvent’ after its treasurer admitted at a weekend meeting of the party’s national executive committee (NEC) that he was having difficulty balancing the books.
According to the Sunday Mail newspaper, detectives investigating the funding and finances of the SNP have been passed emails from June 2021 suggesting Ms Sturgeon personally refused a proposal to hire a fundraising manager.
Douglas Chapman, who was the SNP’s treasurer at the time, had suggested the appointment and this was backed by current treasurer Colin Beattie, but deputy leader Keith Brown said the idea was dismissed by Ms Sturgeon.
The emails, which are notes from an SNP governance review group, said: ‘CB can see benefits of a fundraising manager. KB mentioned this was declined by NS.’
In another email on June 28, 2021, Mr Brown said he had shared details about the proposal being rejected ‘in confidence’ and requested that the member of the review group who received the email did not tell anyone else.
Video footage of a March 2021 NEC meeting also showed Ms Sturgeon lashing out at the decision of three members of the party’s finance and audit committee to quit over the lack of transparency about finances. She said: ‘The party has never been in a stronger financial position than it is right now, and that’s a reflection of our strength and our membership.
‘I’m not going to get into the details… but just be very careful about suggestions there are problems with the party’s finances, because we depend on donors.
‘There are no reasons for people to be concerned about the party’s finances and all of us need to be careful about not suggesting there is. We’ve got to be careful we don’t reap what we sow. If we have leaks from this body it limits the ability for open discussion.’
In wake of the newly unveiled evidence, SNP insiders allege Ms Sturgeon – who planned to remain in Holyrood until 2026 – will be quitting sooner rather than later.
‘There is growing suspicion now that she will be stepping down,’ the source told The Daily Telegraph, adding that regardless of how Ms Sturgeon tries to help her Glasgow Southside constituency the ‘opposition will drag all this up any chance they get’.
First Minister Humza Yousaf, Ms Sturgeon’s successor, is also facing demands to suspend her party membership if she does not step down.
Nicola Sturgeon votes with her husband Peter Murrell at Broomhouse Community Hall in Ballieston, Glasgow, in December 2019
Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy said: ‘Nicola Sturgeon has huge questions to answer over this devastating video, which reveals everything that was wrong with the SNP under the control of her and Peter Murrell.
‘For her to claim that the party’s finances were in rude health – a matter of weeks before a police investigation was launched into the missing £600,000, and her chief executive husband lent his own employers a six-figure sum to help with ‘cash-flow’ issues – is frankly astonishing.
‘Her trademark addiction to secrecy, and to image over candour, can be seen in her crude efforts to suppress any discussion from NEC members about the party’s finances because it might put off donors.
‘No wonder “continuity candidate” Humza Yousaf is now desperately trying to distance himself from the Sturgeon-Murrell era. The shocking lack of transparency among the toxic clique at the top of the SNP is what has got the party in its current mess.
‘If Humza Yousaf wants to show he’s determined to tackle the crisis within the SNP, he should suspend the party membership of Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell.’
At a meeting of the SNP’s NEC on Saturday, Mr Beattie is said to have warned about the growing strain on the party’s finances. According to The Sunday Times, he said there was ‘difficulty in balancing the books due to the reduction in membership and donors’.
Last month, it was revealed that the SNP had lost 30,000 members in just over a year, even though the party had previously dismissed such claims.
The accountancy firm Johnston Carmichael resigned as the SNP’s auditor last September and from the same role at the SNP’s Westminster group, which is now in danger of losing more than £1million in funding from the UK Government unless it finds, by the end of next month, a new auditor to confirm it spent the money exclusively on parliamentary duties.
However, it emerged yesterday that the SNP informed the Electoral Commission that its auditors had resigned in ‘early February’, which was shortly before Ms Sturgeon announced her resignation.
Referring to Saturday’s meeting, the SNP said: ‘The SNP national executive committee agreed to a series of proposals to increase transparency in the SNP.
‘It is the case that the SNP accounts are published annually and are in order.’
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