LONDON: The chief executive of the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP), Peter Murrell, said on Saturday that he was resigning with immediate effect after accepting blame for the public being misled about the number of SNP members.

“Responsibility for the SNP’s responses to media queries about our membership number lies with me as Chief Executive. While there was no intent to mislead, I accept that this has been the outcome,” Murrell said in a statement issued by the party.

Murrell, who has run the party administration since 1999, is the husband of the party’s outgoing leader, Nicola Sturgeon, who announced on Feb 15 that she was stepping down after eight years as Scotland’s first minister. Her resignation triggered an SNP leadership contest which concludes on March 27. Murrell said he had intended to stay as SNP chief executive until after the leadership contest was over.

However, he had faced pressure from within the SNP to go since the party’s head of communications, Murray Foote, quit on Friday after previously disputing a media report that party membership had fallen sharply since 2021.

The SNP issued updated figures on Thursday which showed it had 72,186 members as of February, down from 103,884 at the end of 2021. Foote said in a resignation statement on Friday that he had previously been given inaccurate information on membership numbers by the party’s head office.

After Murrell resigned, the SNP said Michael Russell, who holds the lower profile role of party president, would act as chief executive on an interim basis.

“These changes have no impact on the operation of the leadership contest,” said Kirsten Oswald, an SNP lawmaker who chairs the party’s national executive committee.

The SNP’s political opponents said Murrell’s resignation raised broader questions about the party’s fitness to govern Scotland, where the parliament in Edinburgh has powers over health, education, the justice system and some tax policy.

“The public’s real priorities are being ignored as the SNP turns inwards on itself,” Craig Hoy, chair of the Scottish Conservatives, said.

“Responsibility for the SNP’s responses to media queries about our membership number lies with me as chief executive,” Murrell said.

“While there was no intent to mislead, I accept that this has been the outcome. I have therefore decided to confirm my intention to step down as chief executive with immediate effect.” Murrell’s resignation comes after the SNP’s head of communications quit on Friday after it emerged that he had been told to deny reports that the SNP had lost 30,000 members.

The party was forced to confirm the fall in paid-up support after the three candidates competing to take over from Sturgeon asked Murrell to release the information.

Murrell has led the SNP for nearly 25 years. He and Sturgeon married in Glasgow in 2010. Sturgeon said in February that she lacked the “energy” to carry on and that she would step down after eight years at the helm.

Gender reform row

Sturgeon has been party leader and Scotland’s first minister since 2014. She faced a huge backlash after pushing through legislation allowing anyone over 16 to change their gender without a medical diagnosis.

The law would have allowed one rapist — who switched from male to female after being convicted — to serve a prison sentence in an women-only facility.

After uproar over the rapist’s case, the UK government used an unprecedented veto to block the SNP’s proposed law. Sturgeon had also been pushing for an independence referendum for Scotland, arguing that the UK-wide Brexit referendum of 2016, which led to the United Kingdom leaving the European Union, should allow for a fresh consultation of Scottish opinion. But the UK government rejected that argument, and Britain’s Supreme Court in November sided with London, leaving the SNP with no obvious course to achieve independence at the ballot box.

The three candidates in the running to take over from Sturgeon are current finance minister Kate Forbes, 32, health minister Humza Yousaf, 37, and Ash Regan, a 38-year-old former minister. The new leader is set to be announced on March 27.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2023