Achi news desk-
Mr Murrell, 58, who has been the party’s chief executive since 1999, was the man responsible for the day-to-day running of the SNP, which was once the second largest party in the UK.
That position meant that Mr Murrell was one of the most influential figures in Scottish politics, although he was never an elected politician or much of a figure in front of the cameras.
READ MORE: Peter Murrell resigns as chief executive of the SNP with immediate effect
However, he announced his resignation with immediate effect on March 18 2023 amid a row over party membership numbers and transparency.
It comes almost a quarter of a century after he succeeded Michael Russell, the current president of the SNP, as the party’s chief executive, who now undertakes his work voluntarily until a permanent successor is recruited.
Before that Mr Murrell had worked in the constituency office of former SNP leader and First Minister of Wales Alex Salmond.
Mr Murrell married Ms Sturgeon, who was then deputy leader of the SNP and deputy prime minister, in 2010, with Mr Salmond, then prime minister, among the guests.
Mr Murrell is regarded by many as having played a key role in turning the party’s fortunes around, helping to modernize the SNP’s operations.
While membership has fallen from a peak of around 125,000 achieved in 2018, to the recently revealed total of 72,186, the party remains the largest and most prominent political force in Scotland.
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And with Mr Murrell and Ms Sturgeon at the helm, the SNP has confirmed its electoral dominance, having been in power at Holyrood since 2007 and winning every election north of the border since then.
However, critics of the SNP under Ms Sturgeon’s leadership, both inside and outside the party, have long questioned whether it is appropriate for one couple to hold the key roles of leader and chief executive.
During hearings at Holyrood in late 2020 and early 2021 into the handling of allegations of harassment made against Mr Salmond, there was further scrutiny of Mr Murrell’s role.
At one point he was accused of giving inconsistent evidence to the committee investigating the Scottish Government’s handling of allegations of harassment against Mr Salmond.
Nicola Sturgeon and her then fiance Peter Murrell at their home in 2010. Photo Nick Ponty/The Herald.
The inquiry was set up after Mr Salmond won a judicial review against the Scottish Government over its handling of two sexual harassment complaints. The Sessions Court ruled that the investigation was unfair and tainted by apparent bias. It awarded him £512,250 in legal costs. Mr Salmond was later acquitted of separate criminal charges after a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.
During his evidence to the committee Mr Salmond claimed there was a conspiracy against him which included Mr Murrell, the SNP’s chief operating officer Susan Ruddick, the SNP’s compliance officer Ian McCann, and Ms Sturgeon’s chief of staff, Liz Lloyd.
He referred to text messages sent by Mr Murrell which were later obtained by Kenny MacAskill, the SNP’s former justice secretary who is now an MP in Mr Salmond’s Alba Party.
One text message from Mr Murrell, on 25 January 2020, said it was a “good time to put pressure” on the police as they were “twiddling their thumbs” during an apparent lull in their investigation.
READ MORE: SNP calls on race to continue in ‘positive spirit’ as Russell steps in
A moment said: “The more tips [Salmond] has to fight fire for the betterment of all plaintiffs. So [Crown Prosecution Service] action would be a good thing.”
Mr Salmond claimed they had been prompted by the judicial review, which they saw as disastrous for Ms Sturgeon, and claimed they went on a fishing exercise for police complaints to boost a criminal investigation which began at the end of 2018.
He said the aim was to have the police inquiry “end” the judicial review, allowing the Scottish Government to delay it, or “inflate” it, or to exploit the loss of the judicial review with its court case.
Mr Murrell rejected Salmond’s claims that the text messages were a conspiracy but, in his evidence session, he acknowledged that the language was inappropriate and “out of character.” He said: “To me, that suggests how upset I was at the time.” During her evidence to the committee Ms Sturgeon said the conspiracy claim was “strange”.
In their final report MSPs rejected Mr Salmond’s claims of unacceptable interference in the police investigation and collusion.
