Police Scotland’s investigation into SNP finances has so far cost the taxpayer more than £800,000, it has revealed.
Force figures show Operation Branchform had cost £802,348 by the end of June, of which £67,856 was spent on overtime as part of the investigation and around £734,492 on staff salaries.
The total, obtained after a freedom of information request, included the cost in April of a police raid and search of the Glasgow home of Nicola Sturgeon, the former prime minister.
It also included the arrests of Ms Sturgeon, Peter Murrell, her husband and former SNP chief executive, and Colin Beattie, the party’s former treasurer. After being questioned by detectives, all three were released without charge pending further investigations.
The trio was made up of the three listed officers for the SNP listed on the front of its most recent accounts submitted to the Electoral Commission.
Since July 2021, Police Scotland has been examining the SNP’s handling of more than £600,000 in donations raised in 2017 for a second independence referendum.
Supporters made complaints when accounts filed with Companies House in 2020 appeared to show the SNP had just £97,000 in the bank, despite the referendum never taking place.
Officers searched the home of Ms Sturgeon and Mr Murrell for two days, erecting a large white tent in their front garden, and a luxury motorhome was confiscated outside her elderly mother’s Fife home .
Craig Hoy, Scotland’s Conservative chairman, told the Scottish Sun on Sunday: “The scale of the money involved at this stage shows the seriousness of this police investigation.
Alex Cole-Hamilton, the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, said: ‘The SNP’s brutal cuts have squeezed the justice budget to absolute pips, but it looks like the party’s own internal chaos is pushing it even harder.
Ms Sturgeon went to the police station ‘by arrangement’ last month, where she was questioned for more than seven hours
She rejected calls for her to step down as SNP whip pending the outcome of the inquiry, arguing it would undermine her claims of innocence.
Ms Sturgeon previously insisted in a statement: ‘Innocence is not just a presumption that I am entitled to in law. I know without a doubt that I am in fact innocent of any wrongdoing.
A Police Scotland spokesman said: “As the investigation is ongoing, we are unable to comment further.”
An SNP spokesperson told the Scottish Sun: “Police Scotland do not have to justify their spending to the SNP. They cater to the Scottish public.
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