Big salaries, a motorhome and SNP accounts: The Nicola Sturgeon interview unwrapped

Key developments are emerging from the global stage. Big salaries, a motorhome and SNP accounts: The Nicola Sturgeon interview unwrapped15 minutes ago Share Save Add as preferred on GoogleGetty ImagesSturgeon and Murrell were both important figures in the SNP for decadesFormer first minister Nicola Sturgeon spoke exclusively and in detail to the 's Laura Kuenssberg about the £400,000 embezzled by her estranged husband. Over a 12-year period, Peter Murrell - who was chief executive of the SNP for more than 20 years - spent party money on more than 1,000 items, from expensive coffee machines to a £124,000 campervan. Here we give some of the background to key quotes from the interview.

'We were two people on high salaries'PA MediaNicola Sturgeon married Peter Murrell in 2010"None of these things I would have looked at and thought how on earth could he afford them? We were two people on high salaries. We don't have children.

The Details

We didn't have an extensive social life, mainly because of the pressures of my job. "Peter Murrell had been chief executive of the SNP for more than 20 years when he stood down in 2023. He reportedly earned £104,492 in 2011 but this fell to £79,750 by 2021.

As for Sturgeon, the party published her tax details, covering the years 2014 to 2022. For 2021-22 she had a gross income of £140,496, paying just over £51,500 in income tax. The paperwork also showed she put large sums into her pension each year.

Sturgeon was a member of the Scottish parliament for 27 years and for her nine years as FM she put more than £450,000 into her pension. She first published her tax returns in 2016, in the wake of the Panama Papers revelations, and during a Q&A in early February 2023 she urged other party leaders to do the same. At that same question and answer session she was asked about Murrell's 2021 loan of £107,000 to the SNP to help with "cash flow" following that year's Holyrood election campaign.

What Experts Say

Sturgeon said she could not recall when she first found out about the loan and insisted that "what he does with his resources is a matter for him". 'I asked why on earth he bought a campervan'Google EarthA satellite image shows a motorhome in the driveway of Peter Murrell's mother's home in Dunfermline in 2021"When I found out about the campervan in early 2023. I asked him why on earth he bought a campervan.

And the explanation I got then was that this had been bought in advance of the 2021 election. "A motorhome was by far the largest item, in terms of both value and size, purchased by Murrell with SNP cash. In late 2020, he bought a luxury Niesmann and Bischoff Smove 7.

4e from a dealership in Stafford for £124,550. He also paid for a steering wheel lock and wheel clamp for £168 a few months later. The campervan appears to have been parked 40 miles away from the couple's house on the outskirts of Glasgow.

The story has become one of the most prominent items on the global agenda.