Peter Murrell

Peter Tierney Murrell (born 8 December 1964) is the Chief Executive Officer of the Scottish National Party.[1] He is married to Nicola Sturgeon, the party's leader and First Minister of Scotland.[2]

Early life and education

Murrell was born in Edinburgh on 8 December 1964.[3][4] He attended Craigmount High School and studied at the University of Glasgow.[5]

Career

Murrell has been Chief Executive Officer of the Scottish National Party (SNP) since 1999 when he took over from Michael Russell.[1] Previously he had worked in the Banff and Buchan constituency office of Alex Salmond, who was former party leader.[6] The party's success in the 2007 elections was credited to the organisation of Murrell.[7]

Murrell was formerly the Company Secretary of Independence Merchandising Limited, a now-dissolved company that included as its directors SNP politicians Pete Wishart and Stewart Stevenson.[8]

In January 2019 Murrell came under pressure to resign from Kenny Macaskill, former SNP Justice Secretary.[6]

In December 2020, during a committee hearing on "the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints" Murrell in his oral evidence gave contradictory information regarding whether he was present during a meeting between the FM Nicola Sturgeon and former FM Alex Salmond. At first, he denied being at his home where the meeting was held, saying "I was not at home" but then later stated that "I arrived home not long before the meeting ended". He also appeared to give contradictory evidence regarding whether he uses the social media app Whatsapp, stating that "I am not on WhatsApp; it is not a social media platform that I use". However, he later clarified in written evidence that "“I do not use WhatsApp. There are several messaging apps on my phone that I don’t use. This includes profiles on Facebook Messenger, LinkedIn, Instagram, Slack, Skype, and WhatsApp, none of which I use". Peter Murrell's whatsapp account however appears to show that he last used whatsapp on the 22nd of November, 2020. See https://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=13002&mode=pdf and https://www.parliament.scot/HarassmentComplaintsCommittee/General%20documents/Peter_Murrell_.pdf for the whole account.

Personal life

Murrell married Nicola Sturgeon in July 2010 at Òran Mór Glasgow.[2][9] They first met in 1988 when Sturgeon, who volunteered at the Banff Buchan constituency office of Alex Salmond, attended an SNP youth camp organised by Murrell.[10] Sturgeon and Murrell became a couple in 2003.[6]

References
  1. "Just who is Petter Murrell?". HeraldScotland. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
  2. "Nicola Sturgeon ties the knot — but she won't be calling herself Mrs Murrell". www.scotsman.com. Retrieved 2019-02-03.
  3. Henden, Amalie (21 April 2020). "Nicola Sturgeon husband: Who is Nicola Sturgeon married to?". Express. Express Newspapers. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  4. "Company registration data for Independence Merchandising Ltd".
  5. "Peter Murrell". Facebook. 2019-02-04. Archived from the original on 2019-02-04. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
  6. "Who is Peter Murrell the SNP chief executive and why is he facing calls to quit?". www.scotsman.com. Retrieved 2019-02-03.
  7. Camp, Edwige (2014-12-20). "The Scottish National Party (SNP) : A Party of Government in the early 21st Century". Revue LISA/LISA e-journal. Littératures, Histoire des Idées, Images, Sociétés du Monde Anglophone – Literature, History of Ideas, Images and Societies of the English-speaking World (vol. XII–n°8). doi:10.4000/lisa.7008. ISSN 1762-6153.
  8. ltd, company check. "INDEPENDENCE MERCHANDISING LTD.. Free business summary taken from official companies house information. Free alerts. Registered as SC203193". Company Check. Retrieved 2019-02-03.
  9. "Wedding for SNP's Nicola Sturgeon". BBC News. 16 July 2010. Retrieved 2019-02-04 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  10. Midgley, Dominic (2015-04-16). "Nicola the Queen of Scots: The story behind the fiesty SNP leader". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
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