12 April 2023 , 11:09
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A luxury campervan seized by police probing SNP finances was bought as a "battle bus" and sat outside the former chief executive's mum's house for two years, it is claimed.
It is understood the £110,000 campervan was earmarked for the SNP Holyrood election campaign in 2021 but was never deployed after Covid restrictions were lifted.
Instead it was parked outside the home of Peter Murrell's mother, the Daily Record reports.
A party insider admitted to the paper: “It was not a great idea.”
The SNP is in freefall over a police investigation into how around £600,000 of IndyRef2 donations were spent.
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Ex-SNP chief executive Mr Murrell was arrested and released without charge last week after a raid on the marital home he shares with wife Nicola Sturgeon.
Police raided the SNP's Edinburgh office last week (Getty Images)As part of their investigation, police also confiscated a Niesmann + Bischoff motorhome that was parked outside the Dunfermline house of Murrell’s 92-year-old mum on the same day.
A local claimed the vehicle had not been moved since it was delivered in January 2021.
An SNP source told the Record the motorhome had been bought during the pandemic for use in the Holyrood election campaign in the spring of 2021.
On January 4 of that year, Sturgeon said her Government had decided to introduce another lockdown for January.
Restrictions were strengthened in the middle of the same month.
The SNP source said the Covid rules had been up in the air and the party saw the motorhome as an option if the restrictions were tight.
They said: “The campervan was about trying to have an ability to campaign while complying with the rules. It would have acted as a mobile campaign room.
First Minister Humza Yousaf declined to comment on the camper van (Getty)“It would mean not having a need for hotels and minimise mixing.”
Lockdown rules were eased in April 2021 and the source said the campervan was never used.
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At an event in Leith yesterday, new First Minister Humza Yousaf was asked about the campervan. He said: “I’m not going to comment on a live police investigation.”
Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: “The SNP is now testing the credulity of the people of Scotland to the extreme. This massive expenditure of SNP funds has clearly been a colossal waste of money – with the motorhome left dormant on the driveway for years during the Holyrood elections in 2021 and the council elections in 2022.
"We need to know whether the SNP NEC authorised this eye-watering waste of money.”
A neighbour of Margaret Murrell said at the weekend that two unmarked police cars had pulled up beside her bungalow to take the vehicle from her drive last week.
One local witness said: “It happened at about 9am, which is about the same time they started raiding Peter’s house I think. They did not go into the house, as Margaret is quite old now and they would not have wanted to disturb her.
“They couldn’t get into the motorhome at first because it was locked and it had clamps on it so they had to get some keys from somewhere. They went off but came back and managed to get it open. Then they loaded it on the back of a huge lorry and – after a bit of trouble securing it – took it away.”
Another local said: “It’s been there for two and a quarter years and it has not moved. It was brought here by two men.
“They came in early January 2021 about two and a bit years ago and it has been there ever since. It has never moved to my knowledge.”
At the Leith event, Yousaf said the SNP would not be paying legal bills incurred by Murrell.
However, the First Minister said Murrell would not be suspended as a party member as people are “innocent until proven guilty”.
He also said he’d not had any contact with Murrell or Sturgeon since the raid on their house.
Murrell stood down during the recent SNP leadership contest after a false statement was given to the media about party membership figures.
The 58-year-old became SNP CEO in 1999 and married Sturgeon in 2010.
The police probe, called Operation Branchform, was launched in May 2021 and is focused on how money raised in 2017 and 2019 as part of a referendum appeal has been spent.
The SNP said: “It would not be appropriate to comment on any live police investigation.
“The SNP has been cooperating fully with this investigation and will continue to do so.”