Colin Beattie insists he didn't know about Nicola Sturgeon's 'battle bus' £110k motorhome
The SNP’s former treasurer has claimed that he was not initially aware that the party had bought a £110,000 motorhome despite being in charge of overseeing its finances.
Colin Beattie, who was arrested by police last week, denied any knowledge of the vehicle, which Humza Yousaf, the First Minister, has confirmed belonged to the SNP, and said he had not signed off on it.
Six hours after his comments, he claimed that he had not been aware of the motorhome purchase at the “time of purchase” but then learned of it “via the 2021 annual accounts”.
They list “motor vehicles” with a value of £80,632 as among the SNP's “fixed assets” but provide no further details.
Police Scotland is conducting a probe into the party’s finances. They have seized a luxury motorhome, which it is understood SNP sources have said was intended to be used as an election battle bus, from the driveway of Peter Murrell’s elderly mother.
Mr Murrell, a former SNP chief executive who is Nicola Sturgeon’s husband, has also been arrested as part of the police investigation.
Mr Beattie, who was treasurer for most of Mr Murrell’s more than two-decade tenure as chief executive, spoke to reporters briefly as he returned to Holyrood on Tuesday.
Asked whether he knew about the motorhome purchase and signed it off, he said: “No, I didn’t know about it.” He refused to answer follow-up questions about the vehicle and walked away from journalists.
After his response was widely reported in the media, he issued a further statement, saying:
“This afternoon I was asked if I knew about the motorhome purchase to which I answered no. Given some of the coverage of this answer, I believe it is important to clarify that I was unaware of the transaction at the time of purchase. I became aware of the transaction via the 2021 annual accounts.”
Asked if the events of recent days had been the worst thing to ever happen to him, the former banker replied: “No, I was in Beirut actually, while I was under artillery fire. That was worse”.
He refused to comment on whether he resigned before he was sacked as party treasurer last week. He insisted the SNP was “in the black” and “a going concern”.
The 71-year-old said he had no plans to stand down from Holyrood’s economy and fair work committee.
A fit and proper person
Asked why he was staying on amid a police probe he said “we’ll just see how that develops” and that he believed he remained a fit and proper person to serve in Holyrood and on parliamentary committees.
Mr Beattie, who is MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, was first elected to Holyrood at the 2011 election.
He was party treasurer from 2004 until December 2020, until party members elected Douglas Chapman, an MP, who had pledged to improve transparency.
Mr Beattie regained the role a few months later in June 2021, after Mr Chapman resigned claiming he had not been given the information he needed to carry out his duties.
Neighbours of Mr Murrell's mother-in-law said the motorhome appeared at her Dunfermline home in January 2021, shortly after Mr Beattie was ousted as treasurer.
It is unclear when it was purchased by the SNP, and the party has so far refused to clarify whether the purchase was made when Mr Beattie or Mr Chapman were treasurer.
Mr Beattie has previously attempted to explain where £600,000 in donations, solicited for independence referendums which never happened, had gone. Questions over the "missing" cash sparked the police probe.
Impounded
The Niesmann + Bischoff motorhome has been impounded by police.
SNP insiders have briefed that it was purchased to act as a mobile campaign hub during the Holyrood elections in 2021 due to uncertainty over Covid restrictions and to “minimise mixing”.
However, Covid restrictions were lifted and it was never used for this purpose.
Craig Hoy, the Scottish Tory chairman, said Mr Beattie's denials raised “serious questions”.
He added: “This admission from Colin Beattie beggars belief. He’s effectively saying ‘Motorhome? What motorhome?'
“The murkiness surrounding the scandal-ridden SNP increases by the day. Humza Yousaf should have long since suspended senior SNP figures like Peter Murrell, Nicola Sturgeon and Colin Beattie while this investigation is ongoing, but he has failed to show any signs of leadership.”
Police are also said to be looking at “burner” mobile phones used by party figures - looking for information from sim cards, including any text messages and voice recordings.
So-called “burner” phones are cheap, prepaid devices that users can discard or destroy when no longer required if they want to maintain privacy. Their sim cards can be removed while still retaining the data.
Mr Murrell and Mr Beattie have both been released by police without charge, pending further enquiries.
Mr Yousaf, the First Minister, said during a visit to London that he did not believe his party was “operating in a criminal way”.
He said he had never used a burner phone, or heard anyone in the party discussing them, but said they could be bought for election campaigning.
“When you run a campaign instead of using your personal phone, people might well buy a new SIM card and a new telephone number and make that the campaign phone number. So it depends on your definition of what you mean by a burner phone.”
Mr Yousaf also said it would be “challenging” to arrange an auditor to process the SNP Westminster group's accounts in time to meet the May 31 deadline.
He told the BBC he was “going to work towards meeting the deadline”, but added: “It'll be challenging. I won't pretend otherwise. There is the ability to ask for an extension if required. We're not in that space yet.”
