Defectors to Alba ‘angry at failure of SNP policy’
ANGER over SNP policies has driven some members to sign up to Alex Salmond’s new party, according to a senior nationalist.
East Lothian MP Kenny MacAskill announced his decision to defect to the Alba Party at the weekend – and he has been joined by fellow nationalist MP Neale Hanvey and a number of prominent councillors.
The former justice secretary, a close ally of Alex Salmond’s, also attacked Nicola Sturgeon for failing to deal with people who have acted inappropriately in her party, after she questioned whether Mr Salmond is suitable to be an MSP.
On the Ridge on Sunday programme on Sky News, Mr MacAskill said he was standing for the Scottish parliament with Alba to boost the likelihood of a pro-independence majority as the SNP failed to win an outright majority in 2016.
He said Alba would ‘stand on the radical tradition and radical policies the SNP used to and I believe in many instances still support’.
He added: ‘There are issues that I think have caused many people concern in the SNP and that’s why some have come over. Just today we had the equalities officer from the SNP coming over, along with a colleague.
‘The Alba Party now has more MPs in Scotland than the Labour Party, we are here to stay, we’re going to deliver a result in 2021 to make sure the super-majority is delivered.
‘This election is already becoming about independence. We have got to ensure that the outcome is about an independent majority within the Scottish parliament and that allows Scotland’s democracy to choose.
‘We cannot go on under Boris Johnson. We’ve had austerity inflicted; it’s going to increase. The time has come for Scotland to go its own way.’
Asked about why he thinks Mr Salmond is an asset since polls suggest two-thirds of pro-independence voters have an unfavourable view of him, Mr MacAskill said he was ‘pivotal to the independence cause’.
On Miss Sturgeon saying there are ‘serious questions’ about Mr Salmond’s appropriateness for a return to high office, Mr MacAskill said: ‘No, in two court cases he has been successful. That is behind us, we go forward. And indeed it is for Ms Sturgeon to ask why others in the SNP who behaved inappropriately were not dealt with.
‘We are here to win on the list and that will be contesting against the SNP because they can’t deliver that independence super-majority, but we are part of the wider independence movement.’
Pressed on whether he is comfortable working with Mr Salmond given his lawyer said during his criminal trial, when he was cleared of all sexual assault charges, that he wouldn’t suggest he ‘always behaved well or couldn’t have been a better man on occasion’, Mr MacAskill said: ‘Let him without sin cast the first stone, since we’re speaking on a Sunday.’
He said he was ‘comfortable’ being in a party with Mr Salmond, and said former MP Corri Wilson and former SNP equalities convener Lynne Anderson ‘have every faith in him’.
An SNP spokesman said: ‘The SNP is focused on tackling Covid and securing a strong, fair and green recovery for Scotland as an independent country in a post-pandemic referendum.’
‘Going to deliver a result in 2021’