Click here to visit the Scotland home page for the latest news and sportBy GRAHAM GRANT, SCOTTISH HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR and MICHAEL BLACKLEY, SCOTTISH DAILY MAIL POLITICAL EDITOR Published: 20:13 BST, 24 June 2026 | Updated: 20:13 BST, 24 June 2026
Nicola Sturgeon has been urged to release the written statement she gave to police following revelations that detectives were frustrated by some of her answers.The former First Minister provided a statement to officers investigating the SNP’s funding and finances, which resulted in her estranged husband Peter Murrell being jailed for five years and three months for the embezzlement of more than £400,000.Detectives were frustrated when Ms Sturgeon gave a ‘no comment’ interview to Police Scotland.She then provided a written statement but it emerged that the document failed to address all of the points raised – and there were further questions which officers would have liked to have asked her.Ms Sturgeon’s lawyer failed to respond to inquiries about whether the statement would be released. It led to further calls for a full parliamentary inquiry into various aspects of the scandal.Scottish Conservative deputy leader Rachael Hamilton said: 'There is nothing stopping Sturgeon publishing that statement, so she should do so immediately. Nicola Sturgeon with her now estranged - and imprisoned - husband Peter Murrell‘If she fails to do so, she has no right complaining about the suspicion and innuendo surrounding her – because she will be fuelling it.’Ms Hamilton added: ‘What Sturgeon knew, what she told police and why she wasn’t charged are just some of the issues that a parliamentary inquiry into the Murrell scandal would address.’Ms Sturgeon has insisted that she fully co-operated with the police probe.Senior officers privately raised concerns about her approach to inquiries and poured scorn on her claim she had no ‘conscious memory’ of seeing a £124,000 motorhome, paid for by Murrell with stolen cash, sitting outside her mother-in-law’s Fife home.The Mail has also learned Police Scotland and the Crown Office have no objection to Ms Sturgeon publishing her written statement.Refusing to comment is a right any crime suspect has – but Ms Sturgeon has been criticised for failing to answer detectives’ questions about her husband’s embezzling.Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said Ms Sturgeon ‘appears to have sat in silence for hours during her interview with police, providing no comment. This is clearly not full co-operation.’She said the ex-SNP leader ‘can do the right thing’ and ‘publish her statement to provide the public with full transparency around this murky affair’.Ms Sturgeon was arrested as part of Operation Branchform after stepping down as First Minister in 2023 but has faced no charges. She has also insisted ‘the idea that I did not fully co-operate with the police is not true’.Her lawyer Aamer Anwar failed to respond to questions about whether she would release her written statement to police.The SNP also declined to comment.
