Deal would go down ‘like a bucket of cold sick’

A WAR of words has erupted between senior SNP figures and Alex Salmond over the prospect of an ‘electoral pact’.

The Alba Party leader had indicated that the pro-independence parties should form an alliance to maximise the number of pro-separation politicians getting elected.

But the move was immediately dismissed by several SNP figures.

Nationalist MP Stewart McDonald said: ‘Never a question we could do a deal with Salmond – a former host on RT. It would go down like a bucket of cold sick with voters and be met with horror in European capitals. To cut a deal with such a figure as Russian bombs thud into Ukraine would be reputation-shredding.’

Mr Salmond hit back during an interview on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News, by questioning whether Mr McDonald ‘cared about independence’.

He said: ‘He cares a lot about European capitals, I think his former profession was a travel agent.

‘I think Stewart McDonald should spend a little less time worrying about European capitals, a bit more time co-operating with fellow believers in independence.’

On social media Mr McDonald responded, saying: ‘I’ve got to laugh. A once big political figure who is rightly criticised for his association with Russia’s global propaganda channel is reduced to slagging me off for doing a season abroad when I was 22.’

Pete Wishart, the SNP’s longest-serving MP, said: ‘Alex is loving all this attention, as he should, with his party having never had anybody elected to anything.’

Mr Salmond said he ‘never made the proposal’ to form an electoral pact.