After 14 years of marriage, Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell, Scotland's former political power couple, have announced their separation.
Nicola Sturgeon has announced that her marriage with Peter Murrell is ending after 14 years. The pair were once the most powerful couple in Scottish politics. Sturgeon was SNP leader and first minister, while Murrell was the party's chief executive. Their relationship spanned more than two decades, with the couple knowing each other for more than 35 years. Here are the key moments of their relationship.Early yearsNicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell first met in 1988 at an SNP youth weekend.
They began their relationship in 2003. Sturgeon had been serving as an MSP for Glasgow since 1999, while Murrell became the SNP's chief executive two years earlier. Just a year after they got together, Sturgeon became deputy leader of the SNP under Alex Salmond. When the SNP came to power in 2007, Sturgeon became deputy first minister. MarriageSturgeon and Murrell announced they would be married in January 2010, having gotten engaged the previous Hogamanay. The couple were married in a service at Oran Mor in Glasgow on July 16, 2010, just days before Sturgeon's 40th birthday. The reception was attended by several key SNP figures, including leader and then first minister Alex Salmond. Sturgeon becomes first ministerWhen Salmond resigned as SNP leader and first minister in 2014, it was clear that Sturgeon was going to take over. This would mean that the party's leader and chief executive were a married couple. The outgoing Salmond told the pair that Murrell should resign from his job now that Sturgeon was at the helm. Salmond said: “Nicola said she didn’t think it was a problem. And Peter looked at me with a look of sort of hurt astonishment, resentment, more than anything else. But it was advice well meant. It seemed to me a patently obvious point. I think my estrangement from Nicola and Peter can be traced to that moment.” Pair leave party rolesIn a shock move, Sturgeon announced she was standing down as SNP leader and first minister in February 2023. During the following leadership election the party was urged to reveal its membership figures. When Record sister paper the Sunday Mail reported that the numbers were down by 30,000, this was rubbished by party media chief Murray Foote. When the drop in membership numbers was confirmed, Foote resigned as he had been misinformed. Murrell was then facing a vote of no confidence so stood down as chief executive. Operation BranchformThe long-running investigation into the SNP's finances started in 2021 - but it was two years later that things ramped up. Just weeks after Sturgeon resigned as first minister, Murrell was arrested and the couple's was raided in April 2023. Murrell was later released without charge. But a high-end motorhome was seized by police from his mother's home in Dunfermline. In June that year, Sturgeon was arrested as part of the investigation. She was also released without charge and has repeatedly denied wrongdoing. In April last year Murrell was charged with embezzlement of funds from the SNP. The investigation is still ongoing
NICOLA STURGEON PETER MURRELL SNP SCOTLAND POLITICS SEPARATION
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