Scottish Greens call for independent review into party finances in Scotland
The call comes from Scottish Greens co-leader Ross Greer MSP, who will today lodge an alternative to Labour’s opportunistic proposal for a parliamentary inquiry into the SNP following the Peter Murrell embezzlement scandal.
Given that the Scottish Parliament has no power to investigate political parties, not to mention the obvious conflict of interest in politicians investigating each other, the Scottish Greens will propose an independent review led by a neutral figure, instead of a parliamentary inquiry by MSPs.
The review would not be limited to any one political party and would consider issues such as financial transparency, the influence of extremely wealthy individuals making large donations and so-called ‘dark money’ organisations who do not disclose their own funding sources.
Scottish Green co-leader, Ross Greer MSP said:
“Peter Murrell’s crimes were a horrendous breach of the trust of SNP members and supporters. He will now face the consequences of his actions.
“Labour are now trying to waste taxpayers’ money on an inquiry into the SNP without even explaining what the point would be. Politicians shouldn’t be marking each other’s homework, which is why the Scottish Greens will instead put forward plans for an independent review of political party finances as a whole.
“Labour and the Tories now have a choice to make. Did they call for this review because they’re serious about restoring trust in politics, or because they want another stick to beat the SNP with?
“We need to talk about the influence that wealthy individuals and organisations wield via their donations to politicians and the huge amount of secrecy that still surrounds money in politics.
“Westminster has long refused to do anything about this lack of transparency, for obvious reasons. That's why the Scottish Greens’ proposal also calls for these powers to be devolved to the Scottish Parliament. If MPs won’t improve transparency across the UK, MSPs can at least do that here in Scotland.”