EXCLUSIVE: Allegations the SNP accepted donations in exchange for Westminster seats are being probed by police.
Source - Daily Record 27/08/23
Officers in Manchester have confirmed they received a complaint after the publication of the party’s accounts last week by auditors in the city.
The complaint to police, seen by the Sunday Mail, has made claims of money laundering with unregistered cash gifts to the party being put down as money brought in by fundraising. It states: “Donations that there are no records of...hundreds of thousands of pounds of donations that allegedly were raffles, fundraising etc.
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“I believe these were actually cash gifts as part of a cash for seats operation to place people who made substantial donations to them into seats to gain elected office.”
The report was assigned a reference number and it’s understood police contacted the complainer to follow up. A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police later confirmed Police Scotland were now dealing with it.
Electoral Commission (EC) accounts made public last week show the SNP made a loss of more than £800,000 last year. Its membership fell from 104,000 two years ago to 72,000 before rising to about 74,000 in June. The accounts claim this resulted in membership income falling from £2,516,854 in 2021 to £2,286,944 last year.
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It was also claimed donations fell from £695,351 to £368,538 resulting in a total loss of £804,278. The SNP had faced a race against time to file its accounts ahead of an EC deadline after appointing new auditors in May.
It came after the Sunday Mail revealed the party had lost 30,000 members – something which was initially denied and led to the resignation of former CEO Peter Murrell. A Police Scotland probe into SNP finances, codenamed Operation Branchform, is ongoing.
Ex-first minister Nicola Sturgeon, her husband Murrell and ex-treasurer Colin Beattie have all been arrested before being released without charge. Murrell gave the party a loan of £107,620 in June 2021 – half of which was repaid by October of that year. The SNP accounts show he is still owed £60,000.
In June officers started to probe claims SNP officials received cash in envelopes from a relative of a party politician. Police are believed to have received a letter from a whistleblower alleging the party received substantial donations from a Scots businessman that were never published in line with electoral rules.
Scottish Labour Deputy Leader Jackie Baillie said “Things keep getting murkier for the SNP and these fresh revelations raise new questions for the scandal-hit party.”
Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy MSP said: “There seems to be no end to the allegations about the SNP’s murky finances.
“It’s for the police in Manchester to make their own investigations, as Police Scotland have. But after this week’s disclosures about the huge deterioration in their finances, the Nats – for their own good, as well as the sake of transparency – should be upfront about exactly what has been going on.”
The Sunday Mail contacted Manchester-based AMS Accountants Group for comment but received no response.
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