A Sunday newspaper was vindicated after a story initially branded “drivel” by spin doctors ended up with the resignations of two senior party officials.

The Sunday Mail first revealed last month that membership of the Scottish National Party had slumped by 30,000.

The report was initially dismissed as “drivel” by the party’s chief of communications Murray Foote, the former editor of the Mail’s Reach plc sister title the Daily Record.

But confirmation that the claim was accurate prompted Murray to quit his post, followed swiftly by the resignation of SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, the husband of departing former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

In tendering his resignation, Murray accepted that “responsibility for the SNP’s responses to media queries about our membership number lies with me”.

Reflecting on the events, Mail editor Lorna Hughes criticised what she termed the “culture of lies, secrecy and spin at the heart of the SNP.”

Said Lorna: “When we exposed the fact the party of government had lost 30,000 members SNP HQ denied it outright. On social media, their communications chief branded it “drivel”.

“A story in an independence-supporting newspaper the following day stated our exclusive was ‘malicious and wholly inaccurate’. But political editor John Ferguson’s investigation, based on conversations with multiple sources, was entirely accurate.

“The story then became about the lie. If the SNP were happy to try and cover up this issue, what else have they buried? We have had good reason to ask serious questions.

“In 2021, they mocked a front page Sunday Mail splash that the party was at the centre of a police probe over £600,000 of ‘missing’ money for a second independence referendum. That investigation remains ongoing and is now a top level fraud inquiry.

“Six months ago, they denied a series of exclusive stories about how the party ‘covered up’ allegations of sex assault and grooming by SNP politicians. The following day they briefed other political journalists that the story was wrong and said the party were considering a report to IPSO. No complaint was made.

“All of these stories have now resulted in high-profile resignations and police inquiries. They also reveal that something has gone badly wrong when journalists, whose very job is to hold government to account, are routinely misled, maligned and briefed against in a bid to hide the truth.

Lorna added:  “There is a wider issue here on transparency and how political parties and governments have become, quite frankly, used to lying to journalists. This is not just spin. It is deliberate attempts to deceive.

“In the last week, we have seen it at both Holyrood and at Westminister. Journalists and editors need to be able to be confident that they are being told the truth. Truth, trust and transparency matter.”