Divided SNP ‘could lose grip on power’

THE fallout from the Alex Salmond trial could lose the SNP the next election as warring factions will ‘tear each other apart’, according to a former top Scottish Government adviser.

Alex Bell, a special adviser to Mr Salmond when he was First Minister, said growing divisions in the party could see it lose its grip on power.

He claimed two ‘camps’ would ‘battle it out over the details’ of the trial and said that Nicola Sturgeon’s character was ‘about to be trashed’. But opponents said a ‘very public civil war’ in the SNP was ‘the last thing Scotland needs at this moment’.

Writing in The Courier, Mr Bell said Mr Salmond would seek to demonstrate that there was a ‘conspiracy’ against him by Miss Sturgeon and others in the SNP’s ‘leadership cadre’ to stop him becoming a parliamentary candidate.

He said the two camps comprised Miss Sturgeon, her husband Peter Murrell, her special advisers and ‘just about every female MSP’ against Mr Salmond, party veterans including former health secretary Alex Neil and East Lothian MP Kenny MacAskill, and his adviser Campbell Gunn.

Mr Bell said: ‘Their avatars are Angus Robertson for Sturgeon, and Joanna Cherry for Salmond, both of whom want the nomination for Edinburgh Central at next year’s Holyrood election. The two camps can only tear each other apart. Salmond’s character has already been smeared, by his own defence team. Sturgeon’s is about to be trashed, on a theme of “who knew what and when”. In the process, the SNP will look divided.

‘Already looking shaky on policy, weak on independence, they will now be doubted on questions of character and judgment.

‘If it weren’t for the unknown virus factor, you could begin to imagine that they won’t win the 2021 Holyrood election. That it’s all over now.’

Mr Salmond was cleared of 13 sexual offence charges, including attempted rape. He has said evidence not heard in court will ‘see the light’ in the future.

Mr Bell, who was a defence witness for Mr Salmond, said the evidence that persuaded the jury of his innocence was ‘nothing to smile about’. He added: ‘A marand ried, avowedly Christian man is revealed as a creep.’

A spokesman for Mr Salmond said he would not respond to Mr Bell’s comments ‘for legal reasons’.

Earlier this week, former SNP local government minister Marco Biagi said the fallout could cause splits in the party similar to those in the Scottish Socialist Party when Tommy Sheridan was cleared in a defamation case.

A Scottish Conservative spokesman said: ‘It’s a reasonable gauge of Alex Salmond’s character that even his own defence witnesses are laying into him.

‘And it seems now the former First Minister is willing to tear the SNP apart simply because he likes the idea of winning. This very public civil war within the party of government is the last thing Scotland needs at this moment.’