Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf won last month’s Scottish National Party (SNP) leadership campaign by presenting himself as the candidate of “continuity” to replace Nicola Sturgeon, who is thought to have favoured him in the race.
Now, as her husband Peter Murrell, the former SNP chief executive, is under arrest as part of a police investigation into the party’s finances, Yousaf must display the deft footwork of a Hebridean cèilidh dancer to put enough distance between himself and the couple to limit the political damage.
Continuity will no longer cut it, to echo the mantra of his erstwhile leadership rival Kate Forbes.
It has long been known and was much commented upon throughout the leadership battle that Murrell, who ran the SNP alongside Sturgeon with an iron grip, was likely to be drawn in to the police investigation, which covers the mysterious whereabouts of £600,000 that was raised by activists to fight an independence referendum which never happened.
The £600,000 – raised when Murrell was chief executive – now cannot be accounted for in the SNP’s finances. The police investigation is examining where it may have been diverted to, and for what purpose. The intrigue deepened when it emerged four months ago that Murrell had loaned the party £107,000 in 2021, shortly after the police started examining its finances.
Despite the obvious political risk of becoming a hostage to very uncertain fortunes, Yousaf chose over and over again during the campaign to play up his perceived closeness to Murrell and Sturgeon. When Murrell resigned late in the contest after it emerged the party had lied to the media about a 40 per cent drop in its membership, Yousaf defended him and called him a “close acquaintance”.
Even as the questions around Murrell swirled, Yousaf lauded him as a “loyal servant” to the SNP. “I want to pay tribute to Peter for the exceptional service that he has given,” he said.
On another occasion, he said Murrell “has done more for our party and movement than just about anyone else ... he is an incredible individual”.
Sturgeon has repeatedly refused to properly engage with questions about what, if any, role the police investigation played in her decision to suddenly step down in February. At the time, she insisted she was simply exhausted by almost a decade in power.
Following Murrell’s arrest, Yousaf said he still “believes” Sturgeon, subtle phrasing that nevertheless places the onus of credibility on the words she said to him, rather than anything about the situation he previously said himself. It may turn out to be the first jig step in his cèilidh dance of distancing.
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Meanwhile, the SNP’s political opponents smell blood in the water and are circling, barely a week into Yousaf’s reign as first minister.
Scottish Labour’s deputy leader, Jackie Baillie, has called upon Sturgeon and her successor to state “what they knew and when” about the SNP’s finances.
The “what and when” exhortation is an old political trope. But this is a new era for the SNP, one where for the first time in many years, the party looks vulnerable.