In your briefing today:

📣 Demands for a formal inquiry into the SNP finances scandal are growing, with former First Minister Jack McConnell suggesting a joint Holyrood/Westminster probe. McConnell said it would be justified because of the “millions of pounds” the SNP received in public funds, as the third-largest party at Westminster for “the best part of 10 years”. (Scotsman)

📣 Flights from Glasgow and Edinburgh airports were badly disrupted due to a “fuel shortage" yesterday, with some services being diverted via other airports so they could refuel, and other flights heavily delayed.

The problem was understood to be a local supply issue, and departure boards this morning show the airports running as normal. (Daily Record)

📣 Air strikes between the US and Iran resumed over the weekend, with both sides claiming to have hit military targets around the Strait of Hormuz. The US said it had hit Iranian command sites for drones: Iran said it hit a US air base in retaliation. (BBC)

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📣 The residents of Coalsnaughton - almost 100 households - face continued evacuation from their homes for at least another four days as investigations continue into ground moments under the village. (STV)

📣 Police have been brought in over claims that elderly patients were “doped” at a Scottish hospital, leaving them “like zombies”. (Daily Record)

📣 Some ScotRail staff are not wearing video cameras to cut crime… because they can’t reach their chargers. (Scotsman)

📣 Documents about Lord Mandelson’s appointment as UK ambassador to the US are due to be published today: according to the Guardian, they will show that no measures were taken to address serious security concerns raised when he was named for the job. Nor, reports the title, was Mandelson asked to take any steps to allay concerns. (The Guardian has the exclusive)

📣 A daily pill can double survival time in patients with pancreatic cancer - the world’s most deadly cancer - according to the results of a clinical trial. (Guardian)

📣 A lethal wave of “ultra strength” cocaine is hitting the UK, with deaths linked to the drug reaching a record high. (The Independent has the exclusive)

⚽️ Scotland’s players enjoyed a big send-off as they boarded the plane for the World Cup yesterday, with young fans and a pipe band sending them on their way. (BBC)

⚽️ There was chaos in London as Arsenal paraded their Premier League trophy, a day after losing in the Champions League final. 75 people were rescued from “precarious” viewing points, and 16 arrested. (Independent)

📣 Regular readers know we usually do a roundup of “five things we learned” on Mondays, on a miscellany of stories from the weekend. But there was only one real issue over last weekend: Nicola Sturgeon’s interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

The former First Minister spoke on camera for the first time about the admission by her estranged husband - she sometimes referred to him as her former husband - Peter Murrell, who admitted embezzlement last week.

It was an emotional interview. But it was also an important one in terms of the understanding it has given us of the scandal.

So, instead, here are five things we learned - and didn’t learn - from the interview.

🗣️Sturgeon spoke powerfully of betrayal and misogyny. The most emotional moments were when the former First Minister described learning of Murrell’s guilty plea - only a week or two ago, she said.

She spoke powerfully of not being left as a victim, or a “crumpled heap” after a week of tough media scrutiny. But, also, through the interview, Sturgeon painted herself as a victim of men: of Murrell, principally, but also of a misogynistic response in the last week towards her.

She said she refused to contribute to a culture that blames women for “the actions of men in their lives” and - in one of the most heavily quoted lines from the interview - said she was “serving a sentence for a crime I did not commit”.

🗣️Did Sturgeon really not notice all the posh goods, and the camper van? Kuenssberg noted that no one was holding Sturgeon responsible for Murrell’s crimes. But there were reasonable questions about what she knew, when.

Again, Sturgeon spoke powerfully: of thinking those gifts and gadgets were what people on their good salaries could afford, of not driving or being interested in cars, so not understanding the cost of the £80,000 Jaguar in the driveway. Also, of not seeing the notorious £100,000+ campervan parked at a rarely visited mother-in-law’s house.

She was emotional, too, about a £400 necklace that she “loved”, bought as a gift by Murrell using - she later learned - embezzled cash.

But to look at this coldly, to fully accept Sturgeon’s claims, you must accept that a First Minister - famous for her fastidiousness - was sufficiently distracted by her huge responsibility, or perhaps was simply not worldly enough, to realise that - even with two decent salaries and - we must assume - relatively low outgoings, Murrell’s spending was wildly out of kilter with what they could have afforded.

Some will accept this account. However, many had already made up their mind: according to the Sunday Times, only one in five Scots believes she is telling the truth when she says she knew nothing of what Murrell was doing. It remains to be seen if the interview shifts many people either way.

🗣️ Did she really not notice the problem in the accounts? Even if she hadn’t physically seen the thing, the motorhome appeared in the SNP’s accounts as an asset - an item worth nearly 10% of everything the party owned, in 2021. Kuenssberg asked about it directly: Sturgeon said she hadn’t recalled seeing it in the accounts, and it hadn’t been drawn to her attention by the national treasurer. It could, she said, have been for the rental of something.

Sturgeon is a lawyer, and part of a lawyer’s training includes interpreting accounts. And the vehicle was clearly an asset - a thing the party owned - not a rental contract. Her haziness here - yesterday, in the interview, then as party leader - appears, at best, a bad oversight.

🗣️What happened to the indyref money? This is what alerted whistleblower Sean Clerkin to the SNP’s financial problems in the first place: there was supposed to be a “ring-fenced” fighting fund for a second independence referendum, worth more than £600,000, yet it was clear from the SNP’s accounts that the money wasn’t in the SNP’s possession.

Kuenssberg pressed on concerns being raised, at the time, about the SNP’s finances: three finance committee members resigned, there was a lot of chatter. Sturgeon answered a different question, saying she rejected any idea that people were warning of her husband’s crimes. That’s not what Kuenssberg had asked.

It is still not clear what happened to that cash, or whether it was spent within Electoral Commission rules on “ring-fenced” funds. It’s an issue separate to the Murrell embezzlement.

🗣️Sturgeon warned party members off discussion of the party’s finances. Sturgeon insisted last week she had not attempted to quash discussion of the party’s finances, and said again yesterday “the idea I was trying to stop them is not true”.

But as Wings Over Scotland - the blog which has doggedly led on much of the forensics around this story - pointed out yesterday, Sturgeon delivered her famous online meeting warning to party members in the same month as those finance committee members resigned.

Again, amid the complexities of who knew what when, Sturgeon asks us to believe she saw nothing untoward with the accounts, the concerns being expressed, or the explanations she was getting from senior colleagues.

Amid demands for an inquiry, it’s clear that questions remain unanswered in Scotland’s biggest-ever political scandal.

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