‘Trust me, I had no idea’ about potential wrongdoing in Scottish National party, says former first minister

Nicola Sturgeon on leadership, scandal and trolling the trolls – podcast

Nicola Sturgeon has said she fully understands why many people find it hard to believe she had no idea about alleged embezzlement within the Scottish National party given the close links to her domestic life, but has insisted this is the case.

Speaking to the Guardian’s Politics Weekly UK podcast, the former Scottish first minister said her relaxed demeanour in the period directly after she stepped down as first minister, weeks before police searched the home she shared with her then husband, Peter Murrell, would have been impossible if she had suspected things were amiss.

Sturgeon announced her departure in February 2023. In April that year, Murrell was arrested, with police searching the Glasgow home the couple shared, as well as the SNP’s headquarters in Edinburgh. Officers also seized a motorhome parked outside Murrell’s mother’s house in Fife.