[Politics] Arrest of SNP treasurer overshadows Humza Yousaf’s policy relaunch

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The SNP has signed a contract with a new auditor more than six months after the previous firm quit.

 

The SNP's Westminster group risks losing £1.2m of public funding if it does not submit audited accounts by 31 May.

Group leader Stephen Flynn said he was now confident that the deadline would be met.

 

The party must also file its audited accounts with the Electoral Commission in July.

 

Humza Yousaf, the SNP's leader and Scotland's first minister, said Manchester-based AMS Accountants Group had agreed to complete the accounts for both the party and its Westminster group.

Mr Yousaf said: "There is hard work ahead but it is really encouraging to have them on board as we work towards challenging deadline".

 

It emerged last month that the SNP's previous auditors, Johnston Carmichael, had quit last September.

 

Mr Yousaf has said he only found out after winning the contest to succeed Nicola Sturgeon in March that the party no longer had an accounting firm in place.

Firm which audits SNP finances has resigned
SNP could lose £1.2m if accounts not filed on time

A source told the BBC that Mr Yousaf, Mr Flynn and their teams had "put in some shift to fix the situation they inherited".

 

The source added: "They have managed to turn things around in a matter of weeks and both the party and the Westminster group now have auditors in place."

 

Mr Flynn previously told the BBC that the party was having problems finding new auditors and that he could not guarantee it would be able to meet the 31 May deadline.

He also said the SNP was likely to lose £1.2m of Short Money if it was not able to file its accounts by that date.

 

Short Money is given to opposition parties to help them carry out their parliamentary work, and is based on how many MPs they have.

 

However, Mr Flynn said on Wednesday that he was "confident we'll meet the deadline, as in previous years".

 

Mr Flynn was recently accused by his predecessor, Ian Blackford, of giving "false assurances" that a new auditor had been found - a claim that he dismissed.

 

Johnston Carmichael, which had worked with the party for more than a decade, said the decision to stop auditing the SNP's accounts was taken after a review of its clients.

 

 

It comes amid an ongoing police investigation into the party's finances that saw Nicola Sturgeon's husband Peter Murrell - who was until recently the SNP's chief executive - and former treasurer Colin Beattie being arrested last month.

 

Both men were released without charge pending further investigation.

 

Detectives also spent two days searching Ms Sturgeon and Mr Murrell's home in Glasgow, and the SNP's headquarters in Edinburgh as part of the inquiry.

 

And a luxury motorhome which can sell for more than £100,000 was seized from outside the home of Mr Murrell's 92-year-old mother in Dunfermline, where it was said to have sat for more than two years.

 

[https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-65467591]