Trouble and strife for party

SILENCE from SNP chief executive Peter Murrell on the messages which show him urging police action against Alex Salmond was always untenable.

The party strategy of not responding to the Daily Record’s original press inquiry three weeks ago was doomed to fail.

Now we know that Murrell, who is married to Nicola Sturgeon, sent the messages which enraged the Salmond camp. A storm is approaching. Murrell can expect trouble on two fronts. The first will be from Salmond loyalists who believe the messages show he plotted against the former First Minister. Salmond was charged with sexual offences and later acquitted.

Salmond’s allies will call for Murrell’s resignation, while others will use the formal mechanisms of the party to demand a suspension.

The second whirlwind will come from SNP members who believe this murky episode confirms what they regard as the reality of party headquarters: centralised, secretive and run to promote Sturgeon.

Expect these Murrell critics to demand greater accountability at the top, which is code for a new governance structure and chief executive.

Questions will also be raised about the wisdom of having a married couple occupy the two top posts in a political party.

If Carrie Symonds was chief executive of the Tories, or if Richard Leonard’s wife was general secretary of Scottish Labour, eyebrows would be raised.

Sturgeon will probably survive the fallout of the Salmond melodrama but it is far from certain whether her husband will.