When police raided Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell’s Uddingston home on 5 April, just a week after Humza Yousaf’s victory in the SNP leadership contest, many thought the timing was particularly convenient.
By the time all hell broke loose, the SNP’s “continuity candidate” was safely tucked away at the official residence at Bute House.
But as Police Scotland’s Operation Branchform investigating potential SNP fraud heats up, the Scottish Sun reports that a search warrant for Sturgeon’s home had to wait a fortnight for approval from the Crown Office.
The Crown Office, the independent public prosecution service for Scotland, received the search warrant on 20 March but did not approve it until 3 April.
Accusations of foul play have been bolstered by the fact that the head of the Crown Office, Dorothy Bain KC, also advised the government on legal matters.
Indeed, many see this as a fundamental flaw in the structure of devolution: the country’s chief prosecutor, the Lord Advocate, is also the government’s legal officer.
The SNP’s downfall has somehow managed to be both shocking and banal. No one expected the dramatic arrest and questioning of former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell or former treasurer Colin Beattie. And although the extensive searches of Sturgeon’s house and SNP HQ were particularly juicy scenes, a seized motorhome from a driveway in Dunfermline is hardly a stunning revelation of fraudulent opulence – it doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as a repossessed Lambo.
From the anticlimax of the utilitarian motorhome to the investigation of an Amazon account that may have been used for “Goods rang[ing] from quite expensive items to relatively cheap everyday products”, the SNP’s scandals are as uninspiring as its governing.
With revelations at this rate, the SNP implosion is almost impossible to keep track of – just like its membership numbers…
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