Nicola Sturgeon: ‘I should not be held responsible for the wrongdoing of men’

Nicola Sturgeon said she “should not be held responsible for the wrongdoing of men” after Peter Murrell, her estranged husband, admitted to embezzling hundreds of thousands of pounds from the SNP this week. The former Scottish first minister told an audience at the Hay festival in Wales on Friday: “My picture has been on more front pages in Scotland this week than my former husband’s has, and I don’t think that’s right.” Murrell, 61, pleaded guilty at the high court in Edinburgh on Monday to embezzling more than £400,000 from the SNP between 2010 and 2022, while he was chief executive of the party. He spent the money on luxury items including two cars, a motorhome, jewellery and cosmetics. He has been remanded in custody. Sturgeon, 55, has consistently denied knowledge of Murrell’s crimes and was not charged after a police investigation. Speaking to promote her memoir, she said of the scrutiny she had faced: “It is the age-old cry of when a man does something wrong, well, the woman must have known about it, somehow it’s her fault.” She added: “One of the things that has touched me this week is being contacted by a number of women who have found themselves in situations where a husband has betrayed them, and [have] shown some solidarity.” Sturgeon said she was “determined to carry on”, adding: “I’ve done nothing wrong. So I’m not going to hide away. …