Scotland’s police chief says former first minister Nicola Sturgeon is still being investigated over a probe into SNP finances. Police Scotland’s Chief Constable Jo Farrell has told Sky News that Operation Branchform, the investigation into the party’s finances , is still “ongoing”, and couldn’t confirm when the investigation will officially end. When pushed on whether Ms Sturgeon and former party treasurer Colin Beattie MSP were still being investigated, Ms Farrell replied: “Still ongoing.
” Ms Sturgeon and Mr Beattie were both arrested in connection to the investigation last year, but both were later released without charge. Her husband Peter Murrell, the SNP’s former chief executive, has since been charged with embezzlement. During the interview journalist Connor Gillies asked: “Can you see that the longer that this continues the kind of questions that some may have, specifically within the political world, as to how difficult that is, especially when we’re talking about a political party at the centre of this?” Ms Farrell responded: “We come back to the same point.
“I have operational independence, and we police without fear of favour, and without any political interference.” When asked if the investigation would end soon , Ms Farrell said: “It’s an ongoing investigation - I’m not going to comment on that now.” She later was asked the same question by LBC, to which she said: “Still ongoing.
” Operation Branchform is the police investigation into £660,000 of missing donations made to the party to fight a second independence referendum. As of February, Police Scotland had spent more than £1.3 million on the investigation since it began in 2021.
Ms Sturgeon resigned as First Minister and leader of the SNP last year, just weeks before she was arrested as part of Operation Branchform. Many SNP politicians who lost their Westminster seats at last month’s general election blamed the party’s poor results on the ongoing police investigation . Tommy Sheppard lost his Edinburgh East seat, and said: “There was the elephant in the room - Operation Branchform.
“Never mentioned, always there. “Hard to fight an election with your former leaders awaiting charges, especially when many of the public perceive little distance between now and then.”.
