SNP appoints new auditors as deadline looms

The SNP has signed a contract with a new auditor more than six months after the previous firm quit, the BBC can reveal.

Sources said the party now hopes to be able to file its accounts in time to meet key deadlines.

The SNP's Westminster group risks losing £1.2m of public funding if it does not submit audited accounts by 31 May.

The party must also file its accounts with the Electoral Commission in July.

It only emerged last month that the SNP's previous auditors, Johnston Carmichael, had quit in September of last year.

The party's new leader, Humza Yousaf, and Westminster group leader Stephen Flynn have both said they were previously unaware that the SNP no longer had an accountancy firm in place.

A source told the BBC that Mr Yousaf, Mr Flynn and their teams had "put in some shift to fix the situation they inherited".

The source added: "They have managed to turn things around in a matter of weeks and both the party and the Westminster group now have auditors in place."

Mr Flynn recently told the BBC that the party was having problems finding new auditors and that he could not guarantee it would be able to meet the 31 May deadline.

He also said the SNP was likely to lose £1.2m of Short Money if it was not able to file its accounts by that date.

Short Money is given to opposition parties to help them carry out their parliamentary work, and is based on how many MPs they have.

Mr Flynn had been accused by his predecessor, Ian Blackford, of giving "false assurances" that a new auditor had been found - a claim that he dismissed.

It comes amid an ongoing police investigation into the party's finances that saw Nicola Sturgeon's husband Peter Murrell - who was until recently the SNP's chief executive - and former treasurer Colin Beattie being arrested last month.

Both men were released without charge pending further investigation.

Detectives also spent two days searching Ms Sturgeon and Mr Murrell's home in Glasgow, and the SNP's headquarters in Edinburgh as part of the inquiry.

Police Scotland launched its Operation Branchform investigation in July 2021 after receiving complaints about how more than £600,000 of donations earmarked for independence campaigning were spent.

Questions were raised after accounts showed the SNP had just under £97,000 in the bank at the end of 2019, and total net assets of about £272,000.