SNP's Westminster group submits accounts on time

The SNP's Westminster group has filed its audited accounts ahead of a deadline, the party has said.

It had faced losing some of its public funding if the accounts were not submitted by midnight on Wednesday.

Its previous auditors quit last September - but it was only made public last month.

SNP bosses were initially unable to a find a replacement before Manchester-based firm AMS Accounting agreed to take on the job.

First Minister Humza Yousaf said he only found out after winning the contest to succeed Nicola Sturgeon as party leader in March that it no longer had an accounting firm in place.

Westminster group leader Stephen Flynn said he learned in February that the previous accountants had quit.

The SNP would have been likely to lose some of the £1.2m it receives in Short Money if its Westminster accounts - which cover spending on behalf of the party's MPs - were not completed on time.

BBC Scotland editor Glenn Campbell said he believed missing the deadline would have seen the party lose the first month of Short Money funding, with failure to meet subsequent deadline seeing the overall pot of cash being reduced further.

Short Money is given to opposition parties to help them carry out their parliamentary work. The amount received is based on how many MPs a party has.

The SNP as a whole now has to file its audited accounts with the Electoral Commission in July, with AMS Accounting also carrying out that work.

The party had worked with its previous accountants, Johnston Carmichael, for more than a decade.

The company, which describes itself as being Scotland's largest independent firm of chartered accountants, said it had decided to stop auditing the accounts following a review of its clients.

The decision was taken amid an ongoing police investigation into the party's finances which saw its former chief executive Peter Murrell - the husband of Nicola Sturgeon - and then-treasurer Colin Beattie arrested.

Both men were subsequently released without charge pending further investigation.

Police Scotland launched its Operation Branchform investigation in July 2021 after receiving complaints about how more than £600,000 of donations earmarked for independence campaigning were spent.

Officers searched the Glasgow home of Ms Sturgeon and Mr Murrell, and the SNP's headquarters in Edinburgh, as part of the inquiry.

A luxury motorhome that sells for about £110,000 was also seized from outside the home of Mr Murrell's mother in Dunfermline.