Nicola Sturgeon, former first minister of Scotland, has been cleared by police investigating the finances of the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP).
The news came as her husband and former SNP chief executive, Peter Murrell, appeared in court in Edinburgh on Thursday to face charges of embezzlement.
Mr Murrell, who is separated from Ms Sturgeon, did not enter a plea and was granted bail.
Ms Sturgeon and former party treasurer Colin Beattie were arrested in 2023 and released pending further inquiries. Police said they were no longer under investigation.
On Thursday, Ms Sturgeon said there was never a “scrap of evidence” against her in the investigation into the SNP’s finances. “For almost two years I have had this cloud of investigation hanging over me,” she added, addressing journalists outside her home near Glasgow.
“I think it won’t surprise anybody to hear me say that it’s not been an easy experience, so to reach this point today it is obviously something I am relieved about,” she said.
The investigation into the SNP’s handing of £667,000 (€797,000) in donations for pro-independence activity, known as Operation Branchform, has overshadowed the party since the inquiry was launched in 2021.
Police have searched the home shared by Mr Murrell and Ms Sturgeon on the outskirts of Glasgow, the SNP’s headquarters in Edinburgh and seized a luxury motorhome parked in the driveway of Mr Murrell’s mother in Fife.
The lengthy investigation had also clouded the political legacy of Ms Sturgeon, who stood down as first minister in 2023 after nine years in power.
In the run-up to the 2014 referendum, which brought Scotland to the brink of independence, she had been deputy to the then first minister Alex Salmond, who died last year.
Ms Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow Southside, earlier this month announced that she would not run for re-election to parliament in the May 2026 Holyrood polls. Her memoirs are scheduled for publication in August.
Branchform’s reputational damage was widely cited as one of the reasons behind the party’s disastrous showing in the general election last July, when Labour surged in Scotland.
Scottish first minister John Swinney, a veteran SNP politician, has since stabilised the party in the wake of the brief, turbulent leadership of Humza Yousaf, who took over from Ms Sturgeon.
Prime minister Keir Starmer’s poor start in government at Westminster has also damaged the momentum of Scottish Labour party leader Anas Sarwar, who after the July general election had appeared on track to take control of Holyrood after 19 years of nationalist-led government.
With little more than a year until the Holyrood elections, recent polling has indicated that the SNP would likely emerge as the largest party and be returned to government after 19 years in power. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
