SALMOND ACCUSES STURGEON OF ‘RIDICULOUS POSTURING’

Salmond jibe at Sturgeon ... delivered without a hint of irony!

ALEX Salmond yesterday attacked the ‘ridiculous posturing’ of his opponents in a thinly veiled attack on Nicola Sturgeon.

The former First Minister claimed the spirit of the 2014 Yes campaign was no longer being driven by the SNP – but had been ‘reborn’ in his Alba Party.

Mr Salmond used the first Alba Party conference to escalate the bitter civil war which has split the nationalist movement.

He and Ms Sturgeon are increasingly at daggers drawn – with the SNP leader making it clear she would refuse to work with her former mentor at Holyrood.

He launched his party’s first candidates conference yesterday by saying: ‘More MSPs supporting independence – what’s not to like? Of course, some people say they don’t. But why should independence supporting colleagues not want there to be an independence super-majority?

‘Why would they rather the indy numbers were lighter and the Unionist numbers heavier in the Scottish parliament? That is – in my estimation – ridiculous posturing,

‘Why should colleagues not want a super-majority?’

for any independence supporter.’ In the Scottish electoral system, a party that wins a lot of constituencies is less likely to win regional list seats, even if it wins the popular vote. The SNP is expected to win the majority of constituencies.

Mr Salmond said that ballots cast for the SNP on the regional list were therefore ‘the ultimate wasted vote’.

He urged pro-independence voters to look beyond the SNP and Ms Sturgeon, to further the cause of separation.

While conceding that the SNP has done the majority of ‘heavy lifting’ towards breaking up the UK, he added: ‘The cause of independence has never been the SNP’s sole preserve.

‘The broad-based Yes campaign of 2014 propelled the independence case forward in a fashion that has never been achieved before.

‘That was not the preserve of the SNP. I would say the Yes campaign in the summer of the 2014 is now reborn, in political form, in the ranks of Alba.’

Mr Salmond is attempting an extraordinary political comeback, just over a year after being cleared of 13 sexual assault charges at the High Court in Edinburgh.

However, he will need to improve on current polling, which puts the

Alba party at just 3 per cent, some way off the support needed to win a single seat. Polling has also found that Mr Salmond has the worst favourability ratings of any Scottish leader – and is even more unpopular than Boris Johnson.

In 2019, he successfully took the Scottish Government to the Court of Session and received more than £500,000 of taxpayers’ cash towards his legal bills.

The animosity between him and Ms Sturgeon has only worsened since then.

Several investigations were launched into Ms Sturgeon and her administration’s handling of the complaints.

Mr Salmond has used his evidence to insist his successor had breached the Ministerial Code over the affair – a resignation offence.

Just days after James Hamilton, the Scottish Government’s advisor on the code, found she was not guilty of a breach, Mr Salmond launched his new party.

This has triggered a major schism in the independence movement.

The Alba Party will battle the SNP for the support of pro-independence voters in the regional lists – a direct challenge to Ms Sturgeon’s ‘both votes SNP’ slogan.

Since the launch of the party nine days ago, there have been a string of defections from the SNP, including MPs Kenny MacAskill and Neale Hanvey.

Ms Sturgeon has hit back, branding Mr Salmond a ‘gambler’ who cannot be trusted with Scotland’s future, and questioning whether it was appropriate for him to seek to return to frontline politics, given his conduct towards women.

On Friday, she said that his new party ‘is not making things easier’ for the complainers who accused him of harassment from his time as First Minister – when she served as his deputy.

She also argued that the Alba Party ‘if anything, hinders the independence cause’.

Ms Sturgeon has insisted that an SNP majority is needed to try to force the case for another separation vote.

Last night, the SNP said that voting for Alba candidates would only help to secure the future of the Union.

A party spokesman said: ‘It is clear that the SNP is the only party serious about governing Scotland, and the only party with the ambitious policies needed to deliver a strong, fair and green recovery, and protect our NHS.

‘Only giving both votes to the SNP in May can re-elect Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister – and put Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands, not Boris Johnson’s.’

‘The 2014 Yes campaign is reborn in Alba ranks’