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Nicola Sturgeon cleared in SNP finance probe

20 Mar 2025 1 minute read
Former leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) Nicola Sturgeon speaking to the media outside her home in Uddingston, Glasgow. Photo Jane Barlow PA Images

Former Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon has been cleared in a police investigation into the SNP’s finances.

Ms Sturgeon and former party treasurer Colin Beattie were both arrested in 2023 but released pending further investigation in the probe – named Operation Branchform by Police Scotland.

Mr Beattie was also cleared by police, who announced the move in a statement on Thursday.

The news comes after Ms Sturgeon’s estranged husband and former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell appeared in court charged with embezzlement.

Statement

In a statement, Police Scotland said: “Following direction from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, criminal enquiries into two people arrested as part of the investigation into the funding and finances of the Scottish National Party have now concluded.

“The 73-year-old man arrested on 18 April, 2023, and the 54-year-old woman arrested on 11 June, 2023, have not been charged and are no longer under investigation.”


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Stephen Thomas
Stephen Thomas
25 days ago

They knew she was innocent all along- it was a put up job to discredit the INDY movement and how long did this case take 2/3 years MI6 dirty tricks

hdavies15
hdavies15
25 days ago
Reply to  Stephen Thomas

Dirty tricks for sure but she wasn’t above a bit of that in her time either. Sadly her dirty tricks were pretty ineffective whereas the tactics of UK Gov agencies did for her.

Cwm Rhondda
Cwm Rhondda
25 days ago
Reply to  Stephen Thomas

Too true, the British state has been masters of such dirty tricks for many years.

Mark
Mark
25 days ago
Reply to  Stephen Thomas

Who is ‘They’ in this context?
Given that Sturgeon was the leader of an organisation that couldn’t account for a significant sum of money donated to it for a referendum campaign that never happened, and that £110,000 of the missing money appeared on her monther-in-law’s drive in the form of a motorhome, I think the police had every right to think she might know something about it.

Undecided
Undecided
25 days ago
Reply to  Mark

Absolutely – and this is what the comments would be saying if she was a Tory.

Alan Jones
Alan Jones
25 days ago
Reply to  Stephen Thomas

First they came for the SNP.

John Glyn
John Glyn
23 days ago

Make no mistake, what we have witnessed over these past four years are the British state’s desperate attempts to completely demonise, discredit, Nicola Sturgeon. They have pulled out all the stops to assassinate her character both politically and personally. The tools and resources they have utilized have brought to the fore all the cohorts, legions of supporters, in the so called “Scottish” press and media, state broadcaster BBC, and all the sold out “Scottish” politicians who have acted as Westminster’s Rottweilers. These people have been been as vile, disingenuous, disrespectful, and underhanded, as they possibly could at any and every… Read more »

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