Two separate groups of donors to the SNP’s 2017 and 2019 referendum fighting funds are considering legal action against John Swinney’s party.
The SNP faces the prospect of two civil actions raised by Scots demanding refunds after they donated to a fundraiser “ring-fenced” for an independence referendum campaign.
Stuart Campbell, who runs the Wings Over Scotland politics blog, yesterday published a draft summons prepared by legal firm Halliday Campbell on behalf of a group of donors who are demanding their cash back from the party.
The group proceedings action centres on how the SNP ultimately spent more than £660,000 of donations raised via two online fundraisers in 2017 and 2019.
Senior party figures repeatedly claimed the cash raised would be used for an IndyRef2 campaign, which ultimately never took place. John Swinney later admitted the party had spent the cash on “ongoing activities” and towards “independence objectives”.
But a separate group of activists have yet to join Campbell’s action and are considering their own legal options. Sean Clerkin said he and David Henry would be speaking with lawyers next week before making any decisions on whether to join group proceedings.
“If people want to join Stuart’s action we have no opposition to that,” Clerkin told the Record. “I have already suggested to two people they join him. But we have a group of about 15 people we are in discussions with, and we will be meeting with lawyers next week before we decide a way forward.
“It may be that we ultimately join Stuart’s actions, but for now we want other questions answered first”.
Clerkin was the original complainer to Police Scotland in early 2021 who raised questions about how the SNP had spent the £660,000. Following complaints from several others, cops launched Operation Branchform later that year to probe the party’s finances.
A decision was taken in spring 2023 by detectives, following discussions with prosecutors, to drop the probe into the “ring-fenced” donations and instead focus on how party cash was spent by former long-serving SNP chief executive Peter Murrell.
Nicola Sturgeon’s estranged husband pled guilty in May this year to embezzling more than £400,000 from his former employers. He was jailed last month for five years and three months.
Asked last month how the £660,000 of donations had been spent, Swinney said: ‘That money is part of the resources that are available to the SNP to support its independence objectives and the SNP is the party of independence and that’s what we campaign for.”
Asked if all of the money had been spent, he replied: “I’m saying it’s part of the ongoing activities of the Scottish National Party. We’re the party that campaigns for independence. We just fought an election campaign in which we had a very, very strong anchoring of our campaign for independence. If that’s not the use of the resources then I’m not sure I understand what the resources are for.”
Asked in May if he would apologise to those who donated, and whether they would get their money back, the First Minister said: “Party members have made those donations to the SNP. We don’t have that money, it’s been stolen from us.”
Campbell, who first wrote about how the donations were spent in 2020, told the Herald: “The SNP has told nine entirely different stories over six years about what happened to this money. It’s sort of refreshing that they’ve finally admitted they stole it, but bewildering that the police and Crown Office seem inclined to just let them of.
“We’re continuing to separately press for an explanation of that decision, but in the meantime the donors deserve to get their money back, just as the SNP is demanding it gets back the money Peter Murrell stole from the party.
“If the Crown Office continue to refuse to prosecute what a civil court finds to have been embezzlement, and in our view it’s an open-and-shut case, that’s going to be pretty embarrassing, and another blow to its already tattered credibility.”
It comes as former Nationalist branch secretary David Henry will meet detectives next week and hand over a dossier of evidence alleging “anomalies” in the books of Yes Scotland Ltd.
The Sunday Mail first reported the company, which ran the official 2014 Yes Scotland referendum campaign, had £1,524,998 in income which it is claimed is unaccounted for.
An SNP spokesperson said: “These were the issues which were fully explored during the course of the forensic police investigation and which resulted in no action taken against the SNP.
“In the course of this complex and extensive Police investigation, the criminal actions of Peter Murrell were uncovered and the SNP was found to be the victim of embezzlement.”
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