SNP signs contract with new auditor weeks before deadline to file accounts

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. A source told the broadcaster: “Humza Yousaf, Stephen Flynn and their teams have had to put in some shift to fix the situation they inherited, but they’ve managed to turn things around in a matter of weeks and both the party and the Westminster group now have auditors in place.” In the past month, the SNP’s former chief executive Peter Murrell – who is Nicola Sturgeon’s husband – and its then treasurer Colin Beattie have been arrested in connection with a police probe into the party’s finances. Speaking ahead of the debate, Mr Ross said: “These questions are not going away for the First Minister and SNP leader, who recently had to step in as the SNP’s acting treasurer. “The public must have confidence that Humza Yousaf is treating this investigation as seriously as possible and this debate gives him the opportunity to address these questions in full.” A previous push for a statement to Parliament was rejected by the First Minister, who said: “I don’t think Parliament is the place to do a statement on the party’s finances.” As well as calling for the statement, Mr Ross’s party will push the Government to end the pre-release of statistics, “deliver a more transparent budget process”, publish ministerial expenses and travel quicker, and improve scrutiny of breaches of the ministerial code. “Nobody will be fooled by the Tory party’s cheap political games though, especially from a party who have some nerve to pontificate about transparency when their Prime Minister was all too eager to ban Scottish journalists from asking questions at their party conference over the weekend – and that’s before we even begin to scratch the surface of dodgy PPI deals and their own elusive membership figures.” Mr MacDonald was alluding to a wrangle between Number 10 aides and the Scottish press at the Scottish Tory conference in Glasgow on Friday over access to a press conference with the Prime Minister.