Peter Murrell, once half of Scotland’s most influential power couple as Nicola Sturgeon’s husband, has seen a dramatic fall from grace.
As the SNP’s long-standing chief executive, he oversaw the party’s rocketing rise and membership influx around the 2014 independence referendum.
His fortunes changed after Ms Sturgeon’s surprise resignation as First Minister in February 2023. A row over party membership numbers forced Murrell’s resignation from the chief executive role he had held for over 20 years.
In April, police dramatically raided the couple’s home near Glasgow as part of Operation Branchform, an investigation into SNP finances. He was later arrested and charged with embezzlement.
Until he stepped down in 2023, Murrell had been at the helm of the party since 1999 and was responsible for its day-to-day running.
While he was never an elected politician, the party official had previously worked in the constituency office of former SNP leader Alex Salmond.
He met Ms Sturgeon through their work with the SNP in the late 1980s and were first announced to be in a relationship in early 2003.
They married in 2010 in Glasgow, while Ms Sturgeon was deputy leader of the party and serving as the Scottish Government’s health secretary.
Ms Sturgeon – who is six years his junior – rose through the ranks after first being elected to the Scottish Parliament in 1999.
The SNP won power as a minority government in 2007, often attributed to Murrell’s organisational skills, and made huge electoral gains in the 2011 election.
After the late Mr Salmond’s resignation in 2014 following the result of the independence referendum, Ms Sturgeon was elected unopposed as successor.
Questions were raised at the time about the close working and personal relationship between husband and wife, but they insisted there was a strict division of power within the party’s governance.
Speaking in a documentary released last year, Mr Salmond said he had privately expressed concerns to the couple that the press would exploit their relationship if things went badly for the SNP.
When Ms Sturgeon stood down in February 2023, it was initially assumed that Murrell would continue as party chief executive.
But he resigned the following month after incorrect membership figures were briefed to the media – it later emerged that 30,000 SNP members had left in a year.
During the latter years of Ms Sturgeon’s leadership, some within the SNP had complained of a lack of transparency around the party finances.
In June 2021 the then-first minister said she was “not concerned” about the finances despite two high-profile resignations.
Allegations were made that hundreds of thousands of pounds raised for Scottish independence campaigning was diverted elsewhere.
Then, in July 2021, Police Scotland said they were opening an investigation after seven complaints were made in relation to SNP donations.
This investigation led to the scenes of a blue tent being erected outside Murrell’s house in April 2023 as police carried out simultaneous searches of the property and the SNP’s headquarters in Edinburgh.
In January 2025, Ms Sturgeon announced that she and Murrell were ending their marriage “with a heavy heart”.
She said they “still care deeply for each other and always will”.
Murrell has not commented publicly on the matter.
Ms Sturgeon stepped down as Glasgow Southside MSP before this year’s Scottish Parliament elections in May.
Murrell was remanded in custody at the High Court in Edinburgh on Monday, 25 May after pleading guilty to embezzling £400,310.65 from the Scottish National Party between August 2010 and October 2022.
