Last month, Peter Murrell, the former chief executive of the Scottish National Party (SNP) pleaded guilty to embezzling £400,000 from the organisation between 2010 and 2022. What made this admission doubly shocking is that Murrell is also the estranged husband of the former first minister of Scotland and Leader of the SNP, Nicola Sturgeon, and Murrell’s crimes happened when she was in power.
Sturgeon was interviewed by the police about what she knew, but no charges were ever bought. However, that hasn’t stopped the rumour mill churning away as cries of “How couldn’t she know what her husband was doing?” reverberated throughout the country. In fact, according to one poll conducted by The Times, only 20 per cent of Scots believe Sturgeon when she says she didn’t know anything about her husband’s embezzling of party funds.
In an interview with Laura Kuenssberg, a clearly devastated Sturgeon tried to defend herself against the accusations she was aware of her husband’s crimes.
I don’t want to get into the nitty gritty of this particular case, but I do want to say that I find it entirely plausible that a partner wouldn’t know that their spouse has been living a double life. It is indeed credible that a woman wouldn’t know that the man she loves and trusts had been lying and stealing behind her back for many years. I know that because I have been that woman, and watching Nicola Surgeon fighting back tears whilst struggling to comprehend what has happened, as people around her incredulously shake their heads, has reopened some very old wounds.
