SNP write-off value of Murrell motorhome in party accounts

The SNP has written-off the cost of the motorhome bought for £124,550 by former chief executive Peter Murrell before his conviction for embezzling party funds.

Accounts published by the Electoral Commission show the value of the luxury Niesmann and Bischoff vehicle had been removed from its books.

The balance sheet, which covers 2025, showed Murrell was still owed £60,000 from a loan he gave the party in 2021.

It also detailed SNP membership had fallen below 51,000, and was down about 5,000 from the previous year's figures.

First minister John Swinney said the accounts proved the SNP remained in a position of "formidable financial strength".

About £1.7m of the SNP's income last year came from membership fees, according to the accounts.

Independent auditors also suggested the party's manual journal entries and related party transactions remained at "heightened risk of fraud".

The party had a cash surplus of £509,903, a huge rise from a near £400,000 deficit the previous year following a redundancy push in 2024.

However, the figures do not include the run-up to the Holyrood election in May.

Murrell pled guilty to embezzling more than £400,000 from the SNP earlier this year.

The motorhome, bought in late 2020, was initially claimed to have been purchased to be used by the party as a campaigning tool.

The vehicle was driven a short distance from being picked up in Rosyth, Fife, to the home of Murrell's mother in Dunfermline, where it was parked until being seized by officers.

His estranged wife and former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has repeatedly insisted she was unaware of the existence of the motorhome.

It was listed as having a value of £100,790 on 1 January 2024.

That had dropped by more than half to £41,284 by 31 December of the same year, according to the accounts.

Sturgeon was initially arrested during Operation Branchform, the name given to the Police Scotland investigation into SNP finances, before being told she would not face charges.

Murrell loaned the party £60,000 in 2021. That figure remains in the accounts, but the party said Murrell had not "formally requested" the sum to be paid back.

It is unclear whether it will have to be repaid.

The party has said it will seek to "recover from the guilty party the full amount embezzled" at a proceeds of crime hearing, which is due to take place next month.

Posting on X, Swinney said: "The publication of the SNP's accounts today shows that at the end of 2025 the party was in a position of formidable financial strength, having made a surplus of more than £500,000 over the year.

"The rebuilding of the party's finances allowed us to run a well-resourced campaign that took our positive message to every community in Scotland and made a major contribution to our historic election victory."

Craig Hoy, the Scottish Conservatives' finance spokesman, said the accounts raised "further serious questions".

"The fact they still technically owe the crooked Peter Murrell £60,000 is astonishing and eyebrows will also be raised at auditors highlighting the party still has a heightened risk of fraud," he said.

"Their infamous campervan has now met its demise having more than halved in value after being Murrell's most expensive criminal purchase.

"Questions remain over that, including Sturgeon's remarkable claims that she was unaware of it being parked in her mother-in-law's driveway."