Accounts signed off but questions remain

AUDITORS scrambled by the SNP in a last-ditch attempt to save the party from financial ruin have signed off on its accounts in the nick of time.

Senior SNP figures expressed relief last night after AMS Accountants Group completed their audit of the Westminster section of the party ahead of the May 31 deadline.

The Nationalists will now be entitled to more than £1 million of vital ‘short money’ – funded by the public purse – to support the work of its MPs. The party spent more than six months searching for replacement accountants after Johnston Carmichael, which the SNP had used for a decade, quit in September last year.

The party last month managed to persuade AMS Accountants Group to audit both its Westminster and main party accounts. Audited accounts for the party must also be filed in July to satisfy the Electoral Commission.

Scottish Conservative deputy leader Meghan Gallacher said serious questions remain.

She said: ‘The SNP’s failure to be transparent over the murky state of their finances meant they had to spam auditors to get them signed off at the last minute.

‘Even if they have managed to do so, serious questions remain for the SNP to answer. Senior figures, including Humza Yousaf, are distracted from Scotland’s real priorities by having to beat the clock to safeguard future funding for their Westminster MPs.’

The Mail on Sunday last week told how an offshoot of AMS Accountants Group, Signature Tax, had been referred to regulators over a tax saving scheme. The firm insisted it has done nothing wrong.