Police are investigating claims Nicola Sturgeon personally refused to open up the SNP’s finances to scrutiny.
Detectives have been given emails which outline new claims about the former first minister in their inquiry into £600,000 of missing donations.
Police have already arrested her husband - and former party chief executive - Peter Murrell in their investigation and are now looking at allegations about Sturgeon.
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.
And today the details of a video of Sturgeon angrily rejecting concerns about finances can also be disclosed by the Sunday Mail.
Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: “This bombshell revelation goes to show just how central Nicola Sturgeon was to the secrecy and culture of cover up that festered within the SNP.
“Nicola 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.”
The emails outlining Sturgeon’s block of the appointment of a fundraising manager stem from June 2021.
That’s two months after the Sunday Mail reported police were investigating fraud allegations in relation to a £600,000 referendum fund which was supposed to be “ringfenced” but could not be accounted for.
They show how the suggestion to hire a fundraising manager was made by the party’s 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.
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.
The emails, which are notes from an SNP governance review group from June 2021, state: “CB [Colin Beattie] can see benefits of a fundraising manager.
“KB [Keith Brown] mentioned this was declined by NS [Nicola Sturgeon].
Another email is from Brown to a member of the review group, sent around a week after he received the notes.
Dated June 28, 2021, he said he had shared the details of rejection of a fundraising manager “in confidence” and requested that the SNP member not tell anyone else.
An insider said: “Keith 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.
“Fortunately 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.
“The final report doesn’t have this recommendation in it though.
“It had been ruled out.
“It was something that Doug Chapman has suggested when he was interviewed after he resigned as Treasurer.
“Colin 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.”
The final review report presented to the SNP’s ruling body did not contain the fundraising manager suggestion.
Instead it suggests hiring a “fundraising professional” who would help to “identify new high and mid-level donors” and work on “increasing the support of existing donors”.
It’s understood police now have the emails.
The Sunday Mail approached Keith Brown, Douglas Chapman and Colin Beattie for comment but they did not respond.
We also approached Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell for comment but they did not respond.
An SNP spokesman said: “Given the ongoing live police investigation, it would be inappropriate to comment on questions relating to issues that may be part of that investigation. We are, of course, cooperating fully with the police investigation.”
Murrell was arrested and questioned in connection with the fraud probe earlier this month at the same time as a two day search carried out at his and Sturgeon’s Glasgow home.
He was released from custody without charge.
Last week First Minister Humza Yousaf has admitted he has seen a warrant of items that officers have seized or want to as part of the probe.
He claims not to have known about the a camper van purchase until after he became First Minister in recent weeks.Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “As the mutating web of trouble grows around the SNP, the issues affecting peoples’ everyday lives are getting neglected.”
Scottish Conservative party chairman Craig Hoy MSP said: “Despite Humza Yousaf’s attempts to change the subject, the murk around the Nationalists is only getting cloudier.
“The former first minister needs to step into the light, set the record straight and tell the people of Scotland just how much she knew about the party’s finances.”
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