An Alba MSP has said she hopes the long running police probe into SNP finances will be resolved “shortly”. Ash Regan also said the pro-independence movement is a “wee bit fractured” and requires more cohesion.
Operation Branchform was launched in 2021 into how over £600,000 of indyref2 donations raised by the SNP were spent. Nicola Sturgeon was SNP leader at the time of the donations and her husband Peter Murrell was party chief executive.
Murrell was charged in connection with embezzlement offences last year and the investigation is ongoing.
Lord Carloway, the country’s most senior judge, said last month there appeared to be a “hold up”. Regan, a former SNP Minister who is contesting the vacant Alba leadership, told the Record: “It does seem to be taking a long time, but I understand sometimes these types of investigations can take a lot of time.
“I am hopeful that there will be some sort of resolution, one way or another, shortly.
In a recent article, former SNP MP Tommy Sheppard wrote: “The investigation of allegations of misconduct by senior officers of the SNP has been going on for three-and-a-half years. And there is no indication by the agencies involved as to when it might conclude. This is having a corrosive effect on Scottish politics. At some point it has to end.”
Branchform became UK-wide news in April 2023 when officers searched a home belonging to Sturgeon and Murrell for two days. The SNP HQ in Edinburgh was also searched.
Sturgeon, who was arrested in 2023 before being released without charge, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. She and Murrell have separated.
Regan is going head-to-head for the Alba crown against former Alba MP Kenny MacAskill.
To sign up to the Daily Record Politics newsletter, clickhere