EDINBURGH, June 25 — First Minister John Swinney has been accused of outright denial by whistleblowers who say he is refusing to accept that senior SNP figures, including Nicola Sturgeon, bullied them. On Thursday, Swinney repeatedly declined to offer a direct apology to Allison Graham and Cynthia Guthrie. The two women have said they felt bullied when they tried to raise questions about the party’s accounts while serving on its internal financial watchdog.
Swinney also rejected the claim that anyone had been bullied by Sturgeon or other senior party figures. The row comes just days after Peter Murrell, the former SNP chief executive, was jailed for five years and three months for embezzling more than £400,000 from the party.
Swinney has continued to resist calls for a full inquiry into the scandal, a stance that has earned him the label “king of the SNP cover-up.” Cynthia Guthrie did not mince words. Responding to Swinney’s refusal to apologise, she said his response did not surprise her. “That’s how they’ve got into the mess in the first place,” she said, adding that it shows “that they have learned nothing and they have not changed.” She pointed to the people Swinney has promoted and surrounded himself with.
“This hubris and this denial he is going through,” she said. “He’s giving journalists a terrible time, they’re shouting down like clapping seals.
Scotland deserves so much better than this.” Guthrie, who has supported calls for a KC-led inquiry within the SNP, made clear her frustration runs deep. “I believe in an independent Scotland and want an independent Scotland and this isn’t good enough,” she said. “John has to step up to the plate, grow some and start leading the country.
It’s unsustainable.” For the families watching this unfold, and for the ordinary SNP members who trusted their leadership, the human side of this story is raw. Two women who tried to ask hard questions about the party’s finances say they were bullied for it. Their First Minister says he does not believe them.
The question now is whether the pressure for a full, independent inquiry — one that would look beyond the Murrell embezzlement and into the culture that allowed it — will force Swinney to change course. For the whistleblowers, the answer so far has been a firm no.
