PETER Murrell is the most powerful SNP figure outside of the Holyrood and Westminster parliaments.
In truth, Murrell is much more influential than most of the party's MSPs and MPs, as well as almost all SNP ministers.
Murrell's wife, Nicola Sturgeon, and Deputy First Minister John Swinney are the only two figures with more sway.
As the SNP's chief executive during the party's 11 years in power, Murrell is in charge of the party's HQ, which is literally a stone's throw away from the Holyrood parliament.
READ MORE: Sturgeon's husband to be grilled by SNP over handling of Cambridge Analytica scandal
As chief executive, Murrell also heads the day to day running of the party.
Although little known to the public, Murrell presided over the SNP's three Scottish Parliament election wins, as well as its independence referendum campaign and the 2015 general election that saw the party win 56 of the 59 seats in Scotland.
However, Murrell has come under pressure following the loss of 21 of those seats in last year's general election and the handling of internal SNP difficulties such as the party's investigation into former minister Mark McDonald.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel