The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Colourful line-up of political characters sign up for new party
Scotland’s latest political party launched last Friday, quickly becoming a haven for a few of Scotland’s more colourful political characters.
Let us look, then, at who has joined the Alba Party.
Neale Hanvey was elected MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath in 2019 as an “independent” after he was discovered to have shared anti-Semitic tropes on his Facebook page.
The MP was also sacked earlier this year as the party’s vaccine spokesperson at Westminster.
Kenny MacAskill, the former justice secretary, was elected as the SNP MP for East Lothian in 2019, having left Holyrood in 2016.
At the outset of the second Covid lockdown, he wrote to constituents to plead with them to follow the rules and stay home. He stayed in his Banffshire holiday home, almost 200 miles away from his Dunbar office, to which he made several visits.
Former first minister Alex Salmond, who leads the party, was cleared of 13 charges of sexual misconduct — including attempted rape — following a trial at Edinburgh High Court in 2020.
Tommy Sheridan, a former MSP, was jailed in 2010 after being convicted of perjury following his libel claim for damages against the now-defunct News of the World.
Denise Findlay, who was elected to the SNP conduct committee in 2019, was reportedly part of the investigation process into “independent” MP Neale Hanvey’s anti-Semitic Facebook posts.
She quit after a number of anti-Semitic tweets of hers were discovered.
Former Dundee University rector Craig Murray, 62, was found in contempt of court last week after reporting on his blog information which could “jigsaw identify” the complainers in the High Court trial against Alex Salmond.
He faces up to two years in prison under the Contempt of Court Act.
Ex-SNP Aberdeenshire councillors Leigh Wilson and Alastair Bews have also joined the party, as have former Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock SNP MP Corri Wilson, North Lanarkshire councillor Lynne Anderson – who was the SNP national equalities convener until Sunday – and Caroline McAllister, the SNP’s women’s convener and depute leader of West Dunbartonshire Council.
Inverclyde councillor and former SNP group leader Chris McEleny was one of the first to announce his candidacy for the Alba Party, alongside Eva Comrie and Cynthia Guthrie.