Call for joint Holyrood-Westminster inquiry into Murrell's embezzlement

The UK and Scottish parliaments should hold a joint inquiry into Peter Murrell's financial crimes, former Labour first minister Jack McConnell has said.

Murrell, the ex-SNP chief executive and estranged husband of Nicola Sturgeon, pleaded guilty last week to embezzling more than £400,000 from the party over 12 years.

Lord McConnell called for Westminster's Public Accounts Committee and Holyrood's Public Audit Committee to look into the scandal together.

It came after Sturgeon, speaking to the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, denied covering up problems in the party's finances or having any knowledge or Murrell's wrongdoing.

McConnell, who was first minister from 2001 until 2007, told BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast he "would like to see the two parliaments coming together" to investigate the embezzlement.

The peer said a standalone Holyrood inquiry might be seen as presiding over a "cover up", while a Westminster one might be perceived as carrying out "a hatchet job" on the SNP.

Lord McConnell said a joint probe should look into whether the relationship between Scotland's prosecution service – the Crown Office – and politicians in the Scottish government had become too close.

He also said it should examine whether public funds provided to the SNP at Westminster were involved in the embezzlement and whether safeguards should be introduced for small donors to political parties and movements.

"Let's get to the bottom of this and let's ensure that political parties and political movements in the future and perhaps also the governance of Scotland in relation to the legal system are protected in the interests of the public," he said.

It is not clear how a joint inquiry would work in practice as there has never been one in the 27 years since the devolved Scottish Parliament opened.

First Minister John Swinney has previously rejected calls for any parliamentary inquiry, arguing that his party has improved its governance and oversight, and that an inquiry would add nothing to a lengthy and detailed police investigation.

He has also denied that any public funds from the UK Parliament were involved in the embezzlement, and stressed that the prosecution service acts independently of government.

Lord McConnell said Swinney's opposition to an inquiry was a "big mistake", accusing the SNP leadership of "digging their heels in".

He urged Swinney to "reflect" that a joint inquiry could be in the public interest and perhaps in the party interest too.

Critics have accused Swinney and Sturgeon of shutting down concerns about SNP finances.

That same year, ex-MP Joanna Cherry quit the SNP ruling body due to a lack of transparency. She has recently claimed concerns were not listened to by party leaders.

Sturgeon told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: "I reject completely the notion that people were trying to alert the party to the kind of behaviour that Peter pled guilty to on Monday."

Swinney said last week that he was not "not conscious" of having shut down concerns about party finances.

The former first minister, who was jointly responsible for approving SNP accounts during her eight years in charge of the party, told the BBC that if there had been anything in them which could have alerted her the police "might have reached a different position" on her.

Murrell is due to be sentenced next month.