SNP branches are repaying money after wrongly claiming Covid business support, Nicola Sturgeon says

SNP branches who claimed thousands of pounds in Covid business support were wrong and the money will be paid back, Nicola Sturgeon said on Friday.

The party has been urged to “come clean” on the number of branches that claimed the support, after two Angus branches were told to pay back £20,000 in help they should not have been given.

The Arbroath and Montrose SNP branches each made successful £10,000 business support grant applications to Angus Council last year, but have since been told the rules don’t permit grants to political parties and have been ordered to repay the cash.

Alex King, Arbroath West and Letham SNP councillor and branch treasurer, said the rules around the grants initially did not state that political parties weren’t entitled to the support.

Speaking to journalists on Friday, the First Minister said she is “not aware” of other branches claiming the lifeline fund and admitted that it would not “be an appropriate use of public money”.

“As I understand it the rules weren't broken but the councils have decided that it is not appropriate, and the money in one case has been paid back and in the other case is in the process of being paid back,” she said.

“If I thought that it was an appropriate use and in the spirit of the rules around the use of public money it wouldn't be getting paid back.”

However, the Tories have demanded that the SNP “come clean” about how much taxpayers’ money was claimed and alleged that local branches were encouraged to “play the system” by “senior nationalists”.

"If they won't come clean, we may need a police investigation to examine if there has been an attempt at fraud here,” said Maurice Golden, the Conservative candidate for Angus South.

"This cash was designed to help honest businesses through a global pandemic which has cost thousands of lives in Scotland. Instead, the nationalists used it to line the pockets of their own selfish cause."

Hitting back, Ms Sturgeon said that ten Conservative branches in England have also claimed the support money, adding that the Tory position is “somewhat hypocritical”.

“I don't know, perhaps, you know, somebody wants to ask Douglas Ross when he is commenting on the SNP whether that's all being paid back or not," she said.