Senior SNP figures questioned over vehicle purchases amid investigation into 'missing' £600k independence referendum funds

Senior figures within the SNP have reportedly been questioned over high-value transactions as police investigate major fraud allegations regarding £600,000 of ring-fenced independence referendum funds.

Detectives have quizzed SNP figures about the transactions, including vehicle purchases, made by the party and gifts dating back to 2018, according to the Sunday Mail.

The probe was triggered by at least 19 complaints regarding the ring-fenced referendum fund, amid allegations the fund has been misappropriated. The fund was raised in 2017 and 2019, in the hopes of fighting an independence referendum that never came to fruition.

The last accounts filed for the party show a £80,632 tangible asset of motor vehicles. The SNP has been contacted for comment.

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon with husband Peter Murrell as they cast their votes in the 2019 General Election at Broomhouse Park Community Hall in Glasgow. Picture: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “A report which outlines enquiries already undertaken and seeks further instruction has been submitted to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS).

“We are working closely with COPFS as the investigation continues.”

A row over the fund sparked the resignation of several members of the party’s ruling national executive committee (NEC) in 2021. Edinburgh South MP Joanna Cherry said she was standing down from the NEC over “transparency and scrutiny concerns”.

Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy said the “whole affair stinks of SNP secrecy”. “These latest claims into the long-standing police investigation only add to how murky this situation has got for those at the very top of Scotland’s ruling party,” he said.

Senior figures in the SNP have been quizzed by detectives about high value transactions, including vehicle purchases, made by the party and gifts dating back to 2018, according to the Sunday Mail.

“Peter Murrell may have resigned in disgrace as the SNP’s chief executive, but these questions over this significant sum of money are simply not going to disappear. Whoever emerges from the SNP’s bitter leadership contest cannot ignore the serious questions looming over them.

“The onus is on Nicola Sturgeon’s replacement to urgently be transparent over exactly what has happened to the missing £600,000.”

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: “Questions about the SNP’s murky finances just keep piling up. The usual SNP secrecy and cover-up won’t cut it – they need to open the books and come clean about what exactly has gone on here.”

Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain is understood to have passed the case to Crown agent John Logue, due to her position as part of the Scottish Government.