SNP Police Scotland investigation: Staff working at party headquarters in Edinburgh to be re-interviewed under Operation Branchform

Workers at the SNP’s headquarters are set to be interviewed again by Police Scotland detectives

Staff working at the SNP’s headquarters in Edinburgh are reportedly set to be re-interviewed as part of the Police Scotland investigation into the party’s finances.

Letters have been sent to workers asking them to speak with detectives, The Times has reported, with the directive believed to have come from Scotland’s prosecution service, the Crown Office.

The move comes with Operation Branchform – the probe into the SNP's finances and funding – now having run for more than two-and-a-half years, with an estimated cost to Police Scotland of more than £1 million.

Officers from Police Scotland outside the SNP headquarters in Edinburgh following the arrest of former chief executive Peter Murrell in April 2023. Mr Murrell was later released without charge, pending further enquiries. Picture: PA

The SNP’s headquarters in the Scottish capital were raided by police on the day of former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell’s arrest in April last year.

Up to a dozen officers were seen entering and leaving the building with boxes as part of the operation.

The home of Mr Murrell and his wife, former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, was searched in Glasgow at the same time.

Mr Murrell has kept an incredibly low profile since he was arrested and then released without charge, pending further enquiries.

One source told The Times when asked about Mr Murrell: “Nobody talks about him, nobody has seen him, nobody knows where he is.”

Ms Sturgeon and former SNP treasurer Colin Beattie were both also arrested last year, and released without charge.

Both remain prominent figures who are seen regularly around the Scottish Parliament, with Ms Sturgeon most recently giving evidence at the UK Covid Inquiry.

The police investigation has centred on the whereabouts of £600,000 of SNP funding that had been earmarked for a second independence vote.

A spokesman for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) said: “Senior professional prosecutors from COPFS and an advocate depute are working with police on this ongoing investigation.”