Funding, forensics – and a fridge freezer? The investigation into the SNP

It should have been Hamza Yousaf’s political honeymoon as first minister. The new leader of the Scottish National party has barely been leading Scotland for a month yet any plans to focus on policy agenda have been thrown into chaos as he firefights questions over a police investigation that has led to the party’s former chief executive Peter Murrell and its ex-treasurer Colin Beattie to be arrested.

As part of the fraud investigation into more than £600,000 donated to the party to help them run an independence campaign, an incident tent was set up in the home Nicola Sturgeon shares with her husband, Murrell, and a motor home seized from outside her mother in law’s house.

With reports that the police are investigating whether the money was spent on items including a motor home – and even a fridge freezer – onlookers have been left wondering how a party that so recently looked all-conquering is unravelling so fast.

The Guardian’s Scotland correspondent, Libby Brooks, explains what the investigation is really about, and tells Hannah Moore, how SNP members feel now. She looks at whether the party’s rapid growth in membership has affected its financial management – and how Yousaf is reacting.

Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA

Support The Guardian

The Guardian is editorially independent. And we want to keep our journalism open and accessible to all. But we increasingly need our readers to fund our work.

Support The Guardian