Tory calls for probe into Murrell embezzlement case and what Sturgeon knew

Sir David, who served as Brexit secretary under Theresa May, said Ms Sturgeon had “stitched up” his friend and her former mentor, Alex Salmond, as part of a “cover up” to prevent him finding out the truth.

Ms Sturgeon’s estranged husband Murrell was jailed for more than five years in June after pleading guilty to embezzling more than £400,000 from the SNP over a 12-year period.

Money was spent on items including a campervan, which was parked on Ms Sturgeon’s in-laws’ drive, hairdryers, coffee machines and high-end fountain pens.

Ms Sturgeon has said she is “innocent of any crime”. She told the BBC in May she felt she was “serving a sentence for a crime (she) did not commit”.

In response to Sir David’s speech, she accused him of hiding behind parliamentary privilege “like a coward”.

However speaking in an end of parliamentary term debate in the Commons, Sir David said there had also been a conflict of interest over prosecutors who asked questions of Ms Sturgeon.

He also defended Mr Salmond, who died in October 2024. Sir David claimed sexual misconduct allegations against the first-ever SNP first minister, which Mr Salmond was acquitted of in March 2020, were trumped up in attempt to discredit him in an “evil act” by Ms Sturgeon.

Sir David said: “Did Sturgeon not wonder where he got the money for all those vehicles? The kitchenware, the handbags, the pens, the pedants she loved? After all, who used the Dyson hairdryers in that household?

“My view on her denials is clear, she is lying. She knew full well what her husband was doing and how those luxury purchases were funded.”

He repeated a claim made in the Daily Record that Mr Salmond believed Murrell had stolen from him when they worked together in the 1990s.

He continued: “Salmond told Sturgeon it was deeply unwise to keep her husband on as chief executive, but she kept him in place, enabling his crimes for years. Eventually in March 2021 three members of the SNP’s finance committee withdrew and resigned, blaming incompetent and chaotic financial management.

“They were, in their own words, on the receiving end of a hostile backlash driven by Sturgeon’s toxic culture. They resigned in protest. Later on they were followed by the treasurer of the organisation.

“But Sturgeon told colleagues at the meeting where those first resignations happened, there are no reasons for people to be concerned about the party’s finances. No reasons. And when the treasurer resigned, she ignored it. Sturgeon was part of the cover-up, using her position to suppress justice. She behaved dishonourably and dishonestly.

“But her most evil act was stitching up Alex Salmond to hide the truth. When he was considering going on the national executive himself, the risk to the conspirators was clear. Here’s a numerate man who could not be silenced.”

Sir David referenced Mr Salmond’s words that he had been subject to a “malicious and concerted attempt to remove him from public life”.

He added: “It now appears clear that these actions to destroy a man’s reputation and life were motivated by a desire to hide their own crimes.”

In a television interview about Murrell in May, Ms Sturgeon told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: “I absolutely didn’t know that he was committing crimes.”

A spokesperson for Ms Sturgeon said: “This member of the ‘Old Boys Club’ has been spreading conspiracy theories on behalf of the late Alex Salmond since 2021 – and now he is telling more lies about me. The fact that he hides like a coward behind the legal privilege of Westminster says everything we need to know about him.”