Chamber and committees

Margaret Killah lived in Aberdeen South, where people will choose a new MP next week. Many of the residents who I have been speaking with are dismayed by the SNP’s desperate Peter Murrell and Nicola Sturgeon cover-up, but they are even more angry at the SNP’s duplicity over oil and gas. Thousands of jobs are being lost because of Ed Miliband’s idiotic opposition to new drilling. The SNP pretends to back oil and gas, but it still has a presumption against new drilling in the North Sea, so will John Swinney get off the fence and back our candidate Douglas Lumsden’s clear call to get Britain drilling again?

Before I ask my question, I want to say, come on, Scotland—let us at least get into the next round and out of the group stages.

I also on behalf of my party whole-heartedly condemn the ugly scenes that we saw in the streets of my home city of Glasgow.

John Swinney has blocked a parliamentary inquiry into the Scottish National Party crime scandal. He does not want to know whether Peter Murrell stole taxpayers’ money, the terms of his plea deal or why Nicola Sturgeon was not prosecuted.

A lady called Margaret Killah joined the SNP in the 1950s and donated money to the party for years. When she died, aged 84, she left the SNP £20,000. Peter Murrell told Margaret’s solicitor to deal only with him, not the party treasurer. Margaret’s executor told me this morning that she would have backed an inquiry in Parliament. She said:

“Margaret truly believed in the SNP and would have been so upset and so angry. We will never know if Peter Murrell stole her money.”

Why is John Swinney so scared of doing the right thing?

I remember how sleazy, arrogant and entitled Labour became when it dominated Scottish politics. Does the minister see that at all in his party?

I was going to ask whether the member had anything to say about the journalists in Scotland who were denigrated, attacked and told they were lying by members of his party when they were doing their hard and tenacious work to get the truth about the Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell scandal.

[Made a request to intervene.]

Will the member give way?

I begin by praising Police Scotland and the National Crime Agency, which delivered justice in the face of inappropriate political meddling.

I remember when the Scottish National Party chief executive attacked Police Scotland. Peter Murrell’s successor described its inquiry as a “wild goose chase” and a “grotesque circus”, even offering a £5 bet that no charges would be brought. Well, charges were brought and Peter Murrell admitted his guilt and is behind bars, awaiting sentencing. However, this debate is not about one high-profile criminal; it is about public trust in Scottish politics, which has been dominated by one party for decades.

As a journalist, I investigated organised crime—organisations that are ruthless towards their rivals and even more ruthless with their own people when they step out of line. There is secrecy, dishonesty, intimidation, intolerance and power in the hands of one small group—toe the line or else. There are clear parallels with the culture of the SNP.

Will the member give way?

Arrogance, too—unbelievable.

SNP members might not like that characterisation and the comparison with organised crime, but they should listen to senior people on their own side who dared to ask questions, such as the former MP Joanna Cherry or former treasurer Douglas Chapman.

“Nothing to see here,” they were warned by Nicola Sturgeon, and “Everything is fine,” they were assured by John Swinney, but everything was not fine—far from it. For at least 12 years, Peter Murrell was stealing from under their noses; more than 1,000 items were bought with stolen money: jewellery, watches, homeware, toiletries, electronics and Montblanc pens that cost hundreds of pounds, just like the pens that Nicola Sturgeon flaunted right here when she was First Minister. Who on earth spends three grand on a salt and pepper set made out of crystal?

Then of course there is the 125-grand camper van that Nicola Sturgeon says she did not see. It is 24 feet long, 10 feet high and weighs 3.5 tonnes, but Nicola Sturgeon did not see it, just as she and John Swinney did not see anything remotely suspicious year after year after year.

Peter Murrell stole at least £400,000 to bankroll his and his wife’s luxury lifestyle. In a plea deal, £60,000-worth of goods were wiped from Murrell’s charge sheet—a plea deal crucially timed for just after the Scottish election. Did Peter Murrell discuss that with Nicola Sturgeon when they met at Easter time? Did the police agree with the Crown Office to prosecute just one person? Those are some of the many questions for an inquiry. Here is another: did Peter Murrell steal taxpayers’ money? We still do not know the answer to that.

During this extraordinary SNP scandal, journalists also suffered bully-boy tactics. Hannah Rodger, John Ferguson, Georgia Edkins and others were lied to and smeared. They were told that they were wrong when they were right. Their professional reputations were maliciously denigrated.

We saw the same tactics during the Alex Salmond scandal. The SNP used every dirty trick to destroy the man who delivered it an independence referendum. It continues to attack him as he lies in his grave.

What of the young victims whose party protected the predatory sex offender Jordan Linden?

This week, allegations have resurfaced about a businessman handing Peter Murrell £50,000 to secure a safe Westminster seat for a relative. Now the SNP has been found guilty of contempt of court relating to the Alex Salmond case.

The sleaze keeps rising, and the stench gets worse, yet John Swinney sticks his head in the sand. His response to all this, as we heard from Jamie Hepburn there, is to hide behind the election result. He reckons that that gives him a free pass: telling the truth does not matter, attacking the police and journalists does not matter and silencing whistleblowers and crime victims does not matter. He preaches transparency, candour and respect, yet he practises secrecy, dishonesty and disrespect. He pontificates about misinformation while his party runs a breathtaking campaign of misinformation about renewable energy. They reckon they will get away with it, because they always do.

The Green amendment seeks to help the SNP by muddying the waters and diverting attention. Ross Greer is running to the rescue of John Swinney, who he calls his work dad—the same Mr Greer who thanked Peter Murrell for giving him a hefty pay rise, then deleted the tweet.

The SNP’s rank of taxpayer-funded advisers will tell it to brazen it out, but public trust in Scottish politics is in freefall. Just weeks ago, one in two Scots did not exercise their right to vote. Today, we have a collective duty to do the right thing and back a proper inquiry, because if MSPs refuse to do so, Scotland’s MPs surely must.

I move amendment S7M-00294.3, to insert at end:

“; believes that public trust is undermined when legitimate questions go unanswered; notes the conviction of Peter Murrell following Operation Branchform; believes that scrutiny is essential to democratic accountability, and calls for any independent inquiry to establish what lessons must be learned from this scandal and what reforms are required to restore public confidence in Scottish politics.”

The Peter Murrell scandal is not just about the Scottish National Party’s toxic internal culture; it goes to the heart of Government and Scotland’s justice system. John Swinney and Nicola Sturgeon did not stop Peter Murrell; they enabled him. Sturgeon warned SNP members to stop asking difficult questions and John Swinney assured everyone that the SNP’s finances were sound. Their shield of protection gave Murrell a licence to steal. People want to know why Nicola Sturgeon was not in the dock beside her husband. Will John Swinney back our call for the Lord Advocate to publish all the information that relates to the case?