Suspend Nicola’s husband over Salmond messages, MacAskill urges SNP chiefs

A SENIOR Nationalist MP has called for Nicola Sturgeon’s husband to be suspended as the SNP’s chief executive over his apparent support for a criminal probe into Alex Salmond.

Peter Murrell faces being quizzed over two WhatsApp messages that he allegedly sent to an SNP employee the day after Mr Salmond first appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in January 2019.

They appear to show Mr Murrell supporting action by prosecutors in relation to the former First Minister.

The messages were made public after being sent anonymously to Kenny MacAskill MP last week.

He is now questioning why SNP bosses have not suspended Mr Murrell.

Writing on the Wings Over Scotland blog, Mr MacAskill said: ‘It’s over a week since revelations broke of WhatsApp messages sent by Peter Murrell to his chief operating officer purporting to encourage pressure to be brought to bear on police in the Alex Salmond case.’

He added that the messages ‘may not be criminal’ but: ‘It’s certainly conduct unbecoming of a party chief executive, raising questions about both him and his actions.

‘After all, the SNP is the governing party and seeking to influence criminal investigations is simply unacceptable.’

The East Lothian Nationalist MP also hit out at the SNP’s national executive committee’s decision not to discuss the matter at a meeting on Sunday ‘despite the pleas and demands of several members’.

Mr Salmond was cleared of 13 counts of sexual assault following a criminal trial in March 2020.

MSPs are currently examining a botched Scottish Government probe into two complaints made against him.

Following a judicial review, it was found that the investigation had been ‘tainted with apparent bias’, which led to Mr Salmond receiving more than £500,000 of taxpayers’ cash in legal fees.

The SNP was approached for comment.