Chris Philp MP, the shadow home secretary, told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg that Nicola Sturgeon, Murrell's ex-wife, should also face questions about her knowledge of the crime.

Mr Philp added the former SNP party leader, Nicola Sturgeon "has more questions to answer as well".

Government ministers have also called for the probe, with Work and Pensions secretary Pat McFadden saying the SNP "have been the dominant force in Scottish politics for 20 years, and that dominance has extended not just to politics but to society and culture, and it has been protected by a claim to virtue, which is often denied to those elsewhere in the UK, particularly to England."

Current party leader, John Swinney, has rejected the calls for an investigation, but critics say one should not be carried out in Westminster.

Murrell pled guilty at Edinburgh’s High Court on Monday last week where he admitted using "false or inaccurate accounting codes and descriptions for the purchase of said items" to "disguise the true nature of said purchases."

Nicola Sturgeon said that she felt angry with her ex-husband, telling the BBC: "Am I angry with him? I don’t even think that begins to cover it.

"Because not only has he lied to me and betrayed me – and if this was an entirely private thing, that would be bad enough – I mean, I’ve been genuinely touched this week by some of the messages I’ve had by women who’ve been betrayed by their husbands, lied to by their husbands, not in identical circumstances, although some in, you know, not dissimilar circumstances, and speaking to me about the, just the depth of hurt they feel, and I feel all of that.

"But it’s more than that. He has put me into a position of real peril, he has subjected me to public vilification, having the finger of suspicion pointed at me – you know, humiliation."