'Where's the money'? Or 'When was it spent'?
What happens when official explanations contradict each other, the party books fail to provide corroboration? The accounts just are not adding up for some SNP officials.
EXPLANATIONS given by key figures in the independence referendum fund scandal do not add up. Put simply, the accounts of SNP Compliance Officer Ian McCann, National Treasurer Colin Beattie MSP and Chief Executive Peter Murrell are not consistent. Furthermore, the SNP’s books do not appear to corroborate public explanations made.
When examining the statements by these three SNP party officials on the record, three areas of alarming inconsistency relating to the allegedly ‘missing’ independence referendum fund appear.
Firstly, the issue of why the money has been spent. The SNP had initially been insisting that the ‘ringfenced’ fund was only to be spent after a Section 30 order establishing a second referendum would be agreed. But as of last year, they have admitted that it has in-part or nearly entirely been spent; without any Section 30 order being agreed with Westminster.
Secondly, a question of timing. When was the money spent, precisely? The SNP today concede that the ‘ringfenced’ money - which had been raised for the purposes of a second independence referendum - is no longer present in its entirety. Colin Beattie, the National Treasurer for the SNP, public statements suggest it was largely if not completely spent between October 2020 and June 2021. But this does not appear to be corroborated by the SNP party accounts of 2017, 2018 or 2019.
Thirdly, a question of reimbursements. Why did the SNP go from refusing to reimburse those who donated to the ‘ringfenced’ fund, to doing exactly that? And was this change in tune in any way connected to certain people threatening to go to the police?
The issue of why the money has been spent
If we cast our minds back to the close of business 2017, the SNP had pledged that the independence referendum fund was “frozen” and “ringfenced”. They were crystal clear that all the money raised on the ScotRef website was ringfenced to fight a future independence referendum.
On March 2020 SNP Compliance Officer Ian McCann reiterated that this remained the official position of the SNP. He informed an activist on March 2020 that
“Donations are in a ring-fenced fund to fight the next referendum whenever we are in a position to call that. As you are aware, the Scottish Parliament has passed enacting legislation to allow that to go ahead as soon as Westminster passes the Section 30 Order. We are not in a position to refund those monies.”1
So Ian McCann was unambiguous on March 2020 in that email to an activist. The money was all present and accounted for. Nobody could get refunds from the fund. That it was being kept aside to be spent as soon as Westminster passed a Section 30 Order making a new referendum possible.
This explanation was repeated as recently as October 28th 2020 by Colin Beattie, when he said the fund
“remain earmarked for the referendum and are ready to be fully deployed at a moment's notice”2
So the position is as clear as crystal. It’s unambiguous. The money is there. It is ‘ringfenced’ and treated as restricted funds. It will only be spent on a second independence referendum, and only when a Section 30 Order is agreed with Westminster.
So, why then does Colin Beattie admit in a public statement on June 20th 2021 that the money has been … well … spent?
He wrote the following for public consumption:
“To be clear, by the end of 2020 a total of £666,953 had been raised through the independence related appeals and coded as such through the internal process. These donations are also included in – and have been reconciled with – the total amount for donations included in Party accounts from 2017 to 2020.
Up until 31st December 2020 a total of £51,760 of expenditure had been applied against this income.”
And more remarkably still, he went on to say
“In addition to the amount mentioned in paragraph 6 above that has been applied against the income already, we are budgeting to allocate much of the remainder for referendum/independence preparations this year.”3
So as of June 20th 2021 Colin Beattie has confessed that the money was now being spent on ‘referendum/independence preparations’ throughout 2021.
But my dear readers, I put it to you Mr Beattie has totally contradicted his and Mr McCann’s previous public statements. The position had been the money was to fight a future independence referendum and only when a Section 30 Order is agreed with Westminster.
Do you see the Section 30 Order? Where is it? When did Boris Johnson grant Nicola Sturgeon one? He did not, she hasn’t secured one. So why is Colin Beattie now claiming the ‘frozen’ and ‘ringfenced’ money has mostly been spent between October 2020 and June 2021? And why was he seemingly hell-bent on spending the fund before the end of 2021, in total defiance of anything he or others in the SNP had explicitly told donors to the fund?
One answer might be the sudden appearance of Police Scotland on the scene. Suddenly the cops had received official complaints from unhappy donors to the fund. Now the old bill were making enquiries.
So why was the money allegedly being claimed as having been spent from October 2020-through 2021 - in total defiance of all previous promises about how and when the money would be spent?
One possible explanation is that the money had already been unofficially spent, long before 2021. But the SNP needed, suddenly quite urgently, to officially spend it.
Secondly, a question of timing
If we examine the SNP accounts of 2017, 2018 and 2019, it is very hard to identify where on earth a restricted, ‘ringfenced’ independence referendum fund actually is. Furthermore, there is a distinct possibility that the ‘ringfenced’ money was actually -unofficially - spent as long ago as 2017 repaying loans to the Weirs.
Euromillions lottery winners Colin and Christine Weir donated approximately £500,000 each to the Scottish National Party in 2016.
According to the Electoral Commission, the SNP proceeded to repay £250,000 each to Colin and Christine Weir in 2016. And it was only as of 01/12/2017 that the other half to each was repaid. So, to be clear, the SNP only successfully repaid the Weirs in instalments of £250,000 each, only finally clearing the debt by 1st December 2017.4
Now remember that during 2017 the SNP had raised almost £500,000 for their independence fund on the website ref.scot, and had promised it was ‘ringfenced’ and ‘frozen’.
So, why is it in according to the SNP accounts they only had £7,906 listed as “cash in hand and at the bank”? Look below, as of 31st December, 2017 the SNP only had £7,906 cash on hand5. But we know that the #ScotRef fundraiser on ref.scot had raised £482,000 on its own (other ‘indyref2 fundraising’ occurred and subsequently builds the estimated ‘ringfenced’ totals up to £600,000+, but let’s just focus on that ref.scot total).
So £482,000 was raised just from ref.scot website in 2017. But the SNP only have £7,906 as cash on hand and at the bank on 31st December 2017? How very strange.
And we know that the SNP repaid the Weir loans on 2016 and 2017 (£500,000 each year, so two £250,000 instalments to Colin and Christine Weir respectively).
Huh.
So, where is the ‘frozen’ and ‘ringfenced’ indyref2 fund of £482,000 (last known total) from #ScotRef? The SNP used to provide an itemised listings of ‘restricted’ (i.e. ringfenced) funds in previous accounts, such as this one from 2012…
So, why is there no ‘restricted reserves’ listed in the accounts of 31st December 2017? Is it, perhaps, because there was no ‘ringfenced’ funds to list under such a column anymore? After all, if they had listed money a ‘referendum fund’ under a column titled ‘restricted reserves’ in 2017 without actually having the money that would have been a massive criminal offense.
So the absence of any itemised listing of the ‘ringfenced’ indyref2 fund in the 2017 accounts is…well…speaking volumes. As is the lack of cash on hand and at the bank.
So just a quick recap:
The ‘ringfenced’ indyref2 money raised in 2017 with ref.scot = £482,000
Weir loan repayment of December 1st 2017 = £500,000
SNP cash on hand and at bank as of 31st December 2017 = £7,906
No itemised listing of any ‘restricted’ referendum funds as had been SNP accounting practice under Colin Beattie previously.
And if we look at the SNP accounts for 2018, the SNP still do not have enough cash in the bank to account for the unlisted ‘ringfenced’ (i.e. restricted) £482,000 ref.scot money…
In fact in 2018 the SNP only had £411,0426…which is less than £482,000. And once again, no itemised listing of any ‘restricted funds’ as had been practice previously back in 2012 accounts.
Nor is there enough cash in hand and at the bank in the 2019 accounts either. In fact as of close of business 2019, the SNP only had £96,8547 in the bank. Again, this is less than the £482,000 ref.scot ‘ringfenced’ money.
And can I just point out, I’m actually being generous to the SNP here - because there is more ‘ringfenced’ indyref2 money from other sources that added up on top of the ref.scot amount. I could be demanding to know where over £600,000+ is…but I’ve restricted myself to simply the ref.scot amount since I know precisely how much was raised in that fund before the SNP ended the fundraiser the day after the 2017 General Election.
So regarding timing, I put it to you dear readers that there is a very good possibility the SNP spent the scot.ref raised ‘ringfenced’ indyref2 money back in 2017, repaying the Weirs their loans.
That is also why in none of the subsequent accounts of 2017, 2018 or 2019 is there enough money in the SNP bank to cover the ‘ringfenced’ fund. It had already been spent. This, incidentally, also explains why Colin Beattie as national treasurer stopped itemised listings of ‘restricted’ funds in the accounts (he had previously upheld this transparent and fair practice as recently as 2012 accounts approaching the 2014 referendum on independence).
This is also why Colin Beattie has stopped claiming publicly the indyref2 money has remained “earmarked for the referendum and are ready to be fully deployed at a moment's notice”. And why SNP Compliance Officer Ian McCann’s explanation that it was all present and would only be spent after a Section 30 Order was obtained is now flatly contradicted by Colin Beattie.
This is why Mr Beattie started claiming in June 2021 that the money had been largely spent on ‘independence related campaigning’ etc. Because the money had already been spent, unofficially long ago. But now people were complaining, threatening to go to the Police and wanted their money back. Time to make it officially disappear perhaps?
This is what controversial pro-independence blogger ‘Rev’ Stewart Campbell has termed the '“invisible weaving”.
Thirdly, a question of reimbursements
And make no mistake, people did start demanding their money back. But initially the SNP flatly refused to do so. We know for a fact that as recently as March 2020 the SNP were flatly refusing anyone reimbursements.
In March 2020 the Daily Record revealed that SNP Compliance Officer Ian McCann had
“told an activist who donated money and asked for a refund in March 2020 that it couldn’t be given back as it was “in a ring-fenced fund”. And he went on to say the cash couldn’t be spent until the Westminster government granted a Section 30 Order and sparked an actual referendum campaign rather than just preparations for one.”8
But things get very interesting when we discover that on the morning of June 6th 2021 Peter Murrell personally intervenes “to refund money to an ex-SNP member who threatened to contact police over the party’s donations scandal”9
Oh.
And let me remind my readers that in March 2021 the first official complaint alleging the SNP committed fraud regarding ‘ringfenced’ indyref2 donations was formally filed with Police Scotland.
And by June 2021, Peter Murrell was actively and personally intervening to reimburse donations to the ‘ringfenced’ fund (that doesn’t appear anywhere in the accounts 2017-2019), to anyone threatening to also go to the police.
Now folks, doesn’t this all begin to smell absolutely rotten?
The governing party of Scotland today is now no longer subject to general Police Scotland enquiries. The Police have decided to escalate things to a full-blown formal investigation of the SNP. Warrants have been requested. Interviews ongoing.
So ‘where’s the money'?’ should really be accompanied with ‘when, precisely, was it spent and on what?’
This is a second part article to ‘Where’s the money’ first published on January 16th, 2021
Daily Record, ‘Pressure grows on Nicola Sturgeon over SNP's £600k IndyRef campaign funds row’, John Ferguson, 20th June 2021 | https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/snp-missing-money-row-over-24357134
The National, ‘SNP try to 'quash rumours' independence fighting fund has already been spent’, Andrew Learmonth, 28th October 2020 | https://www.thenational.scot/news/18828133.snp-try-quash-rumours-independence-fighting-fund-already-spent/
The National, ‘SNP's new national treasurer releases statement on £600,000 for indyref2’, Kathleen Nutt, 20th June 2021 | https://www.thenational.scot/news/19385760.snps-new-national-treasurer-releases-statement-600-000-indyref2/
Electoral Commission, Weir Loans to SNP | Click here for link
SNP Financial Review 2017/2018, registered with the Electoral Commission | http://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/Api/Accounts/Documents/20553
SNP Financial Review 2018/2019, registered with the Electoral Commission | http://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/Api/Accounts/Documents/21513
SNP Financial Review 2019/20, registered with the Electoral Commission | http://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/Api/Accounts/Documents/22612
Daily Record, ‘Pressure grows on Nicola Sturgeon over SNP's £600k IndyRef campaign funds row’, John Ferguson, 20th June 2021 | https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/snp-missing-money-row-over-24357134
Edinburgh Live, ‘Nicola Sturgeon's husband made refund to ex-SNP member as donations row deepens’, John Ferguson and John Paul Clark, 6th June 2021 | Archived article link: https://archive.is/2wG1f