Nicola Sturgeon will not make public the written statement she gave to detectives investigating SNP finances, her lawyer has confirmed — a refusal that opposition politicians say will only deepen public suspicion about what the former first minister knows.
Aamer Anwar, Sturgeon’s solicitor, rejected demands that she release the document after Peter Murrell, her estranged husband and the SNP’s former chief executive, was jailed for five years and three months for embezzling £400,000 from the party. In a statement, Anwar said Sturgeon had been “exonerated through the proper process” and that there was “no onus on her to now prove her innocence in the court of media opinion”. He attacked those “who think they could now do a better job than the robust 'gold-plated' financial crime investigation”.
“Sturgeon refuses to release her police statement after husband jailed for embezzling £400,000 from SNP.”
Sturgeon was arrested and interviewed in June 2023 as part of Operation Branchform, the police probe into SNP finances. She gave no comment to detectives’ questions during the seven-hour interview — a decision Anwar described as standard legal advice. She later submitted a “detailed written response” to the police, but The Telegraph understands that the document only answered some of the questions officers had asked. Detectives involved in the investigation believe she co‑operated only to a point.
In March 2025, Police Scotland dropped its investigation into Sturgeon and asked her for a witness statement. It has been reported that she declined. The pressure to publish her written statement intensified after Murrell was sentenced last month at the High Court in Edinburgh. Sturgeon has denied knowing that her husband, from whom she has since separated, was using party funds for lavish purchases. The couple married in 2010 and shared a home in Uddingston, near Glasgow.
Rachael Hamilton, deputy leader of the Scottish Tories, said the decision “blows apart any pretence that Nicola Sturgeon is prepared to be transparent about this SNP scandal”. She added: “This decision to keep the public in the dark will only fuel suspicion about what Sturgeon is hiding about what she knew and when about her crooked husband.”
As Murrell begins his prison sentence, the question of what Sturgeon told police — and what she chose not to — remains unanswered, leaving the public to weigh a lawyer’s assurances against the silence of a former first minister.
