Officers in Manchester have confirmed they received a complaint after the publication of the party’s accounts last week by auditors in the city.The complaint to police, seen by the Sunday Mail, has made claims of money laundering with unregistered cash gifts to the party being put down as money brought in by fundraising.
It states: “Donations that there are no records of...hundreds of thousands of pounds of donations that allegedly were raffles, fundraising etc.“I believe these were actually cash gifts as part of a cash for seats operation to place people who made substantial donations to them into seats to gain elected office.”The report was assigned a reference number and it’s understood police contacted the complainer to follow up.
A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police later confirmed Police Scotland were now dealing with it.Electoral Commission (EC) accounts made public last week show the SNP made a loss of more than £800,000 last year.
Its membership fell from 104,000 two years ago to 72,000 before rising to about 74,000 in June. The accounts claim this resulted in membership income falling from £2,516,854 in 2021 to £2,286,944 last year.It was also claimed donations fell from £695,351 to £368,538 resulting in a total loss of £804,278.
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