Nicola Sturgeon’s divorce from Peter Murrell brings to an end one of the most controversial eras of Scottish politics. Sturgeon as SNP leader and Murrell as CEO won eight elections together in an incredible run of success between 2014 and 2023.
The division of labour was simple: she ran the Government while he made sure the party machine purred.
Sturgeon enjoyed electoral success even Alex Salmond did not achieve and her husband was fundamental to the project. But the victories masked a huge flaw at the heart of the Sturgeon/Murrell partnership that few people spoke about publicly when she was in power.
No public organisation should be led by a husband and wife team and it was crazy for Sturgeon to think the situation was tenable.
Imagine the reaction if Carrie and Boris Johnson had tried to pull off a similar arrangement at the Tories. Or if Victoria Starmer had been Labour general secretary at the same time her husband led his party.
Their professional relationship always raised questions about checks and balances within the SNP and it should never have been allowed.
Salmond, whose death last year drew to a close another chapter of Nationalist rule, warned Sturgeon after she took over in 2014 that keeping Murrell in post would be a mistake. Her one-time ally, Kenny MacAskill, was a rare public dissenter who called for Murrell to quit amid concerns about a conflict of interest.
Speculation will be rife about the reasons for the breakdown of the marriage, but the police investigation into SNP finances will inevitably have put pressure on the relationship.
Operation Branchform was launched amid claims indyref2 donations had gone missing and Murrell has been charged. Senior party figures believe having a normal party structure, rather than a husband and wife team, would have provided greater transparency on SNP finances.
Sturgeon critics also believe her decision to keep her husband in power when she took over symbolised a corrosive style of rule.
The former First Minister trusts few people and Murrell was one of a small band of allies who were part of her inner circle. She was a centraliser by instinct and believed she could run her party and Government with a handful of confidantes, including her husband.
Their divorce is unlikely to have any impact on the SNP or on the party’s chances of holding on to power next year. She has effectively retired from front-line politics and public sightings of Murrell are a rarity.
But the end of the marriage and the death of Salmond allows John Swinney the opportunity to move on from the mistakes of his predecessors. Salmond’s aggressive style of leadership jarred with the new First Minister and he governs in a very different way.
Sturgeon’s time in charge reaped electoral success but her secretive style of running the country, of which Swinney was part, was counter-productive.
Swinney has used his time in charge to reach out to the public and start reforming a party organisation that was no longer fit for purpose. The Sturgeon years are history and an opportunity for renewal awaits.
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