Former first minister Jack McConnell has called for a joint inquiry by Westminster and Holyrood into Peter Murrell’s embezzlement of SNP funds.
The Labour peer said the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee should conduct an investigation alongside its Scottish Parliament counterpart, arguing this would avoid concerns about political bias.
His intervention comes after First Minister John Swinney rejected calls for a Holyrood inquiry into how Mr Murrell was able to embezzle £400,000 from the SNP. Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee is now considering launching its own investigation.
Lord McConnell told The Scotsman: “This is about the fact that because the SNP were the third largest party at Westminster for the best part of 10 years.
“They received over that time, millions of pounds of public money to organise their party affairs.
“Obviously there are also issues about, signing off accounts, and how seriously that was all taken, and I think on all these areas there are issues to be looked at, and recommendations that must be made.
“So I think this should be a joint public inquiry.”
The calls were echoed by Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden, who became the first UK Cabinet minister to publicly back an inquiry.
Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, which featured a lengthy defence from former SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, Mr Murrell's wife at the time, Mr McFadden said: “I think there should. And I think the reason there should is because there are two things going on here.
“You have a marriage, and that was discussed a lot in the interview, but you also have the role of a political leader.”