SNP Clean Up Campaign Yielded Results

SNP MP Angus MacNeil has made further comment following the release of the Crown Prosecution Service decision and Assistant Commissioner Yates' response.

Mr MacNeil said:

"It is extraordinary that this investigation has gone on for so long without any charges.  There is much circumstantial evidence that people were raking in funds in exchange for the expectation of honours and indeed that such transactions were being kept secret.  Let's not forget that this investigation started because a Labour Party donor complained about being denied his anticipated peerage and the Labour Party Treasurer complained about being kept in the dark about his party's secret loan arrangements.

"The document supplied by the CPS is an extraordinary affair. It has focused the investigation on whether there was any agreement between two people to make/accept a gift, in exchange for an honour. It does make one wonder what an 'innocent' inference might be under the circumstances.  Whether these things can be laid at the door of any one individual is quite different from whether these matters took place.

"Anyone watching the press conference will have concluded that Assistant Commissioner Yates is clearly furious at this decision. 16 months of thorough and intense investigation has resulted in nothing. His officers have been a constant source of media attention, and have endured speculation and allegations of leaking, and he has been relentlessly spun against.

"We make no apology for asking the police to investigate as the effects of this 16-month investigation is of course the fundamental shift in political culture which means that it is no longer acceptable for honoours to be determined for political purposes. I would like to thank AC Yates and his diligent team for the incredibly difficult task they undertook.  As everyone in Westminster is well aware, the prospect of honours were being dangled as bait for potential donors and the simple proof is that a reluctant Government has been frogmarched into tabling proposals to change the party funding system, so that this cannot happen again."

ENDS