SNP chief executive Peter Murrell stands down amid party crisis

First, it was Nicola Sturgeon. Now her husband Peter Murrell has resigned as SNP chief executive after a scandal about covering up a fall in party membership numbers. He quit after being told that unless he did so by midday he’d face a confidence vote. That this happened on a Saturday lunchtime shows the disarray now engulfing the SNP hierarchy.

It started yesterday when Murray Foote resigned as SNP parliamentary communications director. He said he had been misled (perhaps by Murrell himself) when he rubbished reports – calling them ‘drivel’ – that SNP membership had slid from 103,884 to 72,186 amidst frustrations about Sturgeon’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill. If Foote quit for having unwittingly misled the public, what are the implications for Murrell?

‘Responsibility for the SNP’s responses to media queries about our membership number lies with me as chief executive. While there was no intent to mislead, I accept that this has been the outcome,’ he said in a statement. ‘I have therefore decided to confirm my intention to step down as chief executive with immediate effect. I had not planned to confirm this decision until after the leadership election. However as my future has become a distraction from the campaign I have concluded that I should stand down now, so the party can focus fully on issues about Scotland’s future.’

Murrell implied that this had nothing to do with him being Sturgeon’s husband and also running the party during a leadership election: there are Chinese walls, he implied. ‘The election contest is being run by the national secretary and I have had no role in it at any point’.

But the party now has plenty more to focus on, including whether its hierarchy has created a culture where membership declines are not merely covered up but falsely denied – as well as questions about who else needs to go. This is not just about Sturgeon, but the whole apparatus around her.

And that appears to be how Kate Forbes sees it: ‘Many of you, like me, will be hurt and bemused by the extraordinary turmoil in our party over the last days,’ she said in a statement prior to Murrell’s resignation. Pete Wishart, an SNP MP, has also called for the ‘broadest possible inquiry’ into the membership cover-up after Foote announced he was leaving due to ‘serious issues’ with ‘agreed party responses’ he had been issuing.

During the first week of voting for the next party leader, the SNP party machine has come under very visible scrutiny – and it hasn’t fared well. Now we see the leadership battle turning into an internal crisis with three key SNP figures having resigned within the last 24 hours and even calls for the leadership contest to be halted.

Ash Regan’s campaign team has been instrumental in ensuring recent revelations surfaced. She saw Yousaf as the candidate of the SNP machine and has been gunning for that machine. With the support of Kate Forbes, she released an open letter to Murrell requesting that up to date membership figures be released. When they were, the cover-up was exposed.

In his resignation statement, Murrell says he had no intent to mislead – but that’s hard to reconcile with what happened. A story in the Sunday Mail described the SNP membership as having fallen by about 30,000, to which the SNP response was emphatic: ‘It’s not just flat wrong, it’s wrong by about 30,000.’

Was this one rogue briefing? No: Chris Musson of the Scottish Sun was advised by SNP HQ in February that ‘we don’t offer a running membership total as it fluctuates daily. It shouldn’t be too far off our latest published number, which was just over 100,000.’ In fact, they had lost almost a third of their membership since 2021.

After Regan’s campaign team piled on the pressure, SNP HQ’s hand was forced: figures released on Thursday revealed that the party membership had fallen by 31,698. Since 2019, the SNP’s membership has fallen by 43 per cent.‘It takes decades to build a political party,’ tweeted former first minister Alex Salmond, ‘but days to destroy one.’

The collapse began last night when head of media Murray Foote announced his resignation. ‘Acting in good faith and as a courtesy to colleagues at party HQ,’ Foote wrote, ‘I issued agreed party responses to media enquiries regarding membership. It has subsequently become apparent there are serious issues with these responses.’

Hours before, Nicola Sturgeon’s strategic policy and political advisor Liz Lloyd – a hugely influential figure – announced she too would be resigning from government after Regan’s campaign team raised concerns about her role in Yousaf’s campaign. Reports emerged earlier in the week that she had been providing advice to Yousaf, which Regan’s campaign said could be breaking party rules.

A spokesperson for the Scottish government said that this was not the case, that ‘special advisers are permitted to assist with party leadership elections, in their own time, while still employed by the government’. Lloyd quit her job anyway. 

Having previously bashed the Conservatives for their own sleaziness and lack of honesty, it isn't a good look for the SNP to be facing multiple resignations linked to integrity issues.

All of this makes the race harder for Yousaf: he can now be cast by his opponents as the puppet of a collapsing mafia when a new broom is needed. A number of members will have already sent in their votes but given recent revelations, Regan is threatening legal action and wants the contest stopped. After all, those who have already voted may reconsider their choices with this new information. Yousaf used his status as the ‘continuity candidate’ at the start of the race to get voters on side, pledging no radical shift in the party direction. The last few days have made 'continuity' look like a far riskier option.