Salmond takes on old foe Sturgeon with a new party
ALEX Salmond yesterday announced a sensational return to frontline politics by launching the proindependence Alba Party.
The former first minister will take on his successor, former protege and now arch enemy Nicola Sturgeon.
The 66-year- old confirmed he will be standing for Alba in the North East regional list in May’s Scottish parliament election.
Mr Salmond said the aim was to produce a ‘supermajority’ for independence as he was unveiled as the party’s leader at a press conference yesterday.
Last night the SNP dismissed his announcement as ‘predictable’ and said concerns about Mr Salmond’s conduct ‘raise real questions about the appropriateness of a return to public office’.
Scottish voters have two votes in Holyrood elections – one for a constituency MSP and another in a regional ‘list’ ballot designed to make the overall result more proportional. The complicated additional member system favours smaller parties in the list ballot. Mr Salmond said Alba will only stand in the regional lists.
But his move is likely to deepen divisions within the SNP, with some of his candidates likely to be drawn from his old party’s ranks. The announcement came at the end of a tumultuous week in which Miss Sturgeon was cleared of breaching the ministerial code over the Salmond affair.
Mr Salmond was awarded £512,250 in legal fees after the Scottish government admitted it acted unlawfully in its handling of harassment allegations against him. The former first minister later faced criminal charges relating to sexual assault, but was acquitted on all 13 counts.
On Wednesday, Mr Salmond said he would take legal action over failure by the Scottish government’s top civil servant Leslie Evans to take ‘real responsibility’ for failings in the affair. Last night Scottish Conservative leader
Douglas Ross said: ‘Alex Salmond is a discredited figure... and rightthinking people will want nothing to do with him or his new party.’
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said the election must not be about ‘ the old arguments between personalities who believe their interest matters more than the national interest’.