This Tuesday, April 18, for his first major speech in the Edinburgh Parliament, Humza Yousaf, the new Scottish Prime Minister, only wanted to talk about one thing: his ” new start “ for the Scottish nation, with the three “priorities” for the next three years: more equality, more growth and better public services. But the controversies quickly caught up with the 38-year-old leader, at the head of the Scottish Independence Party (SNP) for less than a month, while his formation, the first Scottish political force, is suffering a violent storm.
On Tuesday, shortly before Mr Yousaf intervened in Holyrood (Edinburgh’s parliament), Scottish police confirmed the arrest of party treasurer Colin Beattie as part of an investigation launched in 2021 into the finances of the SNP. He was released the same evening from police custody without being charged. Some 667,000 pounds sterling (755,100 euros) was collected by the party from donors in the wake of the failed independence referendum of 2014 (the “yes” to remaining in the United Kingdom won by 55%) to finance the campaign for a second referendum. But the police received complaints, raising suspicions that the money had been used for another purpose.
Seizure of a motorhome
This development is the latest in a long line of disturbing news for SNP members who have so far been loyal to the party’s charismatic ex-leader Nicola Sturgeon. At the beginning of April, Peter Murrell, the executive director of the party and husband of Mme Sturgeon, was arrested by the police, before being released the same evening. The couple’s home was combed through for two days and a motorhome was seized from M’s mother-in-lawme Sturgeon: It had been parked there since 2021 and belonged to the SNP. It has also emerged in recent weeks that Mr Murrell had to lend up to 100,000 euros to the party, the latter appearing to have cash flow difficulties, and that he had failed to report the departure of a third of SNP members .
Humza Yousaf asserted that he only learned of some of these developments when he took over the leadership of the SNP at the end of March, accentuating the impression of opacity and extreme centralization of the “Sturgeon system”. ” The motorhome was bought by the SNP to run the campaign for the second referendum, thinking that it would start during the pandemic and that it would make it easier for our officials to travel, says Graham Campbell, Glasgow alderman and member of the party’s executive committee. But the campaign ultimately did not begin. »
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