Forty-eight hours later, Nicola Sturgeon urged folks to ‘behave as rationally as attainable” and keep away from making bulk purchases.
Nicola Sturgeon informed the BBC that Peter Murrell ‘lied to me and betrayed me’ (Picture: Jeff Overs/BBC/PA Wire)
Nicola Sturgeon’s estranged husband purchased greater than 100 bathroom rolls simply hours earlier than she warned the general public to not panic-buy in the course of the pandemic. Peter Murrell, final week, pleaded responsible on the Excessive Court docket in Edinburgh to embezzling greater than £400,000 from the SNP — the occasion Ms Sturgeon as soon as led — between 2010 and 2022.
Murrell, who was SNP chief government from 2001 to 2023, spent the cash on gadgets together with a motorhome, vehicles, kitchen devices, costly watches and pens. Extra mundane purchases included hand cream and bathroom seats. Now, courtroom paperwork present Murrell, 61, spent £55.98 on 108 Andrex bathroom rolls on March 7, 2020, in keeping with experiences.
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Nicola Sturgeon separated from Peter Murrell in 2025 (Picture: Getty)
The purchases got here as supermarkets confronted shortages of some key gadgets and 48 hours earlier than Ms Sturgeon, in a press convention, informed the general public to “behave as rationally as attainable” and keep away from bulk buys, in keeping with the Day by day Mail.
Within the following weeks, Murrell additionally reportedly purchased 144 bottles of Evian nonetheless mineral water and 4 packs of liquid laundry detergent.
Scottish Conservative deputy chief Rachael Hamilton informed the Mail: “Peter Murrell’s bathroom roll splurge means that he had advance discover of Nicola Sturgeon’s warning in opposition to panic shopping for, but it surely’s additionally typical of the SNP’s “do as I say, not as I do” double requirements.”
Scottish Labour deputy chief Jackie Baillie additionally informed the paper: “The hypocrisy is breathtaking. Each new revelation shines a harsher gentle on the tradition that developed beneath Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney’s management and raises recent questions on who knew what and when.”
Ms Sturgeon mentioned Murrell, whom she separated from in 2025, “lied to me and betrayed me”.
In an interview on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, she mentioned: “Am I indignant at him? Sure, I’m indignant, however I’m additionally carrying a level of harm and I believe a level of trauma about – this complete episode resulted in my sitting in a police station beneath arrest.
“What he has completed to me I believe will take me a really, very very long time to get better from.”
Reflecting on a number of the gadgets Murrell purchased, Ms Sturgeon mentioned that she was working around the clock most days in her function as First Minister and that she didn’t have a lot, if something, to do with the administration of the family.
She mentioned: “Simply to clarify how our funds labored, we had separate financial institution accounts, I by no means had any entry to his checking account, he didn’t have any to mine. Each month I might cross him a sum of cash to cowl my share of the family bills and go away him to it.”
Ms Sturgeon, who was Scotland’s first minister from 2014 to 2023, additionally mentioned: “I completely didn’t know that he was committing crimes.”
Murrell was remanded in custody and is ready to be sentenced this month.
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