SNP announces Murray Foote as new chief executive to replace Peter Murrell

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The SNP has announced Murray Foote as its new chief executive just months after he resigned as the party's head of media.Former Daily Record editor Foote stood down from his SNP role in March after the party misled journalists over its membership figures.Nicola Sturgeon's husband and then chief executive Peter Murrell resigned a day later as part of the row.It was reported that Murrell was facing a vote of no confidence for his part in the debacle.

Party president Mike Russell had been temporarily filling the role since.Foote said: “I am delighted to take up this important role and look forward to helping build the campaign for independence, both by strengthening the SNP's headquarter functions and supporting the party's formidable organisation across Scotland."The former editor claimed to have acted in "good faith" when approached by a journalist in February who inquired how many members had recently quit the party.The Sunday Mail, the Record's sister title, reported on February 12 that up to 30,000 people had cancelled their membership.The story was subsequently dismissed as "drivel" in a tweet by Foote.But the SNP later admitted that its membership numbers had plummeted by 30,000 in the last two years.Foote said at the time of his resignation: "Acting in good faith and as a courtesy to colleagues at party HQ, I issued agreed responses to media inquiries regarding membership."It has subsequently become apparent there are serious issues with those responses."Consequently, I concluded this created a serious impediment to my role and I resigned my position with the SNP Group at Holyrood."Following the Sunday Mail story, the SNP issued a statement to an independence-supporting newspaper in an attempt to discredit it.An SNP