SNP GOES INTO MELTDOWN
Civil war erupts as MacAskill and ex-MP quit SNP to join Alba ++ Party braced for ‘many more’ defections ++ Sturgeon says Salmond ‘gambling with country’s future’
NICOLA Sturgeon’s SNP was in meltdown last night after one of its most senior figures quit to join Alex Salmond’s new party – amid warnings of more defections to come.
Former Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill – one of the SNP’s most experienced MPs – dropped the bombshell that he is leaving to join the Alba Party.
The high-profile defection was just one sign yesterday that Ms Sturgeon’s leadership is being undermined by a fierce civil war between rival pro-independence groups arguing over how best to pursue their dream of breaking up Britain.
Former MP Corri Wilson also announced yesterday she has quit the SNP to join Alba, which was launched by Mr Salmond amid high drama on Friday.
The Scottish Mail on Sunday understands that several more Nationalist MPs are also planning to turn their backs on Ms Sturgeon to join Mr Salmond, with at least one expected to stand for Holyrood. Others will wait until after May’s Scottish parliament elections to
defect. Mr Salmond unveiled three candidates on Friday – Chris McEleny, a former SNP group leader on Inverclyde Council who had been selected to stand for the SNP in May, on the West of Scotland list; lawyer Eva Comrie; and Cynthia Guthrie, a businesswoman.
Yesterday’s extraordinary developments – on only the third day of election campaigning – sparked vitriolic attacks from both sides, highlighting the bitterness and anger that now exists between politicians who were formerly members of the same party.
Ms Sturgeon accused Mr Salmond, who for many years was her political mentor and friend, of being a ‘gambler’.
The First Minister said: ‘This is not a time – elections should never be games, they’re serious – but particularly at this time, for the country this is a really serious choice that people have, it’s not an opportunity to gamble with the future of the country.’
She added: ‘I know from knowing him well in years gone by, Alex Salmond is a gambler.
‘It’s what he enjoys doing but this is not the time to gamble with the future of the country.
‘This is the time to make a serious choice for strong, experienced leadership.’
Announcing his decision to leave the SNP, Mr MacAskill accused the party leadership of ‘harming our cause’.
In response, the SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford condemned Mr MacAskill, who served as Justice Secretary between 2007 and 2014, as ‘an embarrassment’.
Mr Salmond has led the SNP twice, became the party’s first First Minister and represented it at Holyrood and Westminster. His explosive return to the front line of Scottish politics follows what he has called three years of ‘hell’.
Having been accused of sexual harassment, he successfully sued the Scottish Government for its botched handling of the complaints.
Last year he was cleared at the High Court in Edinburgh of all 13 sexual assault charges, involving nine women. Ever since that court case, he has remained estranged from the SNP, while his war of words with Ms Sturgeon has become increasingly bitter.
Now he insists she needs his party to ensure a ‘super-majority’ of up to 90 pro-independence MSPs are returned to Holyrood, which he argues would be better placed than the SNP alone to secure a second referendum and separation from the rest of the UK.
Yesterday, Mr Salmond said: ‘It is a dead cert that if people vote Alba on the list they will get more pro-independence MSPs at Holyrood.’
Mr MacAskill, who was Justice Secretary when Mr Salmond was First Minister, announced his defection in a resignation letter to his local SNP branch.
Ms Sturgeon has pursued a ‘both votes SNP’ strategy, in the hope of returning a majority of SNP MSPs to Holyrood for the first time since 2011, and strengthening her case to push ahead with another independence referendum.
However, Mr MacAskill said this was a mistake, given that only four Nationalist MSPs were elected via the regional lists in the 2016 elections. In the letter to his local branch, he wrote: ‘This is why I believe that support for an independence list party is essential – a party that can deliver the supermajority for independence, which will allow Holyrood to override London’s diktat, removing unionist MSPs and replacing them with those committed to independence.’
He said he knew of other SNP members who were planning to switch parties. One SNP Westminster source said: ‘I’ve heard of three or four MPs who are possibly defecting.’
Mr MacAskill will remain an MP, even after quitting the SNP.
Meanwhile, Alyn Smith, Nationalist MP for Stirling, launched a blistering attack on Mr Salmond.
He warned voters would reject Mr Salmond’s attempt to ‘game the system’, adding: ‘It’s been a pretty grubby, unedifying spectacle over the past few years.
‘If it had been me I would have retreated in shame long since. There’s a smell to this new party which is not overly appealing.’
Mr Salmond’s Alba Party was also joined yesterday by Ms Wilson, who was Nationalist MP for Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock from 2015 to 2017.
She said: ‘I am delighted to be joining the Alba Party, whose goal is to secure independence – the cause that so many in Scotland have given so much to support.
‘We have a fantastic opportunity at this election to work with others to deliver an independence supermajority, leaving Boris and company in no doubt that we are ready for self-determination.’
In 2016, the SNP fell just short of a majority, with 63 out of 129 seats at Holyrood. Recent polls have
suggested Ms Sturgeon, whose popularity has been dented by her Government’s handling of sexual misconduct allegations against Mr Salmond, will fall narrowly short again.
Mr Salmond – who plans to stand at least four candidates in each region, with himself at the top of the North East list and Mr MacAskill at the top in the Lothians – believes his new party can help to deliver a total of 90 pro-independence MSPs, which he describes as a ‘super-majority’.
But polling expert John Curtice said this could backfire.
He told the BBC’s Today programme yesterday: ‘There is no doubt that Alex Salmond’s argument – that if you can persuade people to vote for the SNP in the constituency but then vote for him in the list – could result in more proindependence MSPs, and indeed at the expense of the Unionist parties.
‘However... in pursuing that strategy, he could also put at risk the SNP’s chances of winning an overall majority on their own.’
Last night, Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said that Mr Salmond was ‘unfit’ for office.
Labour MP Ian Murray said: ‘This new outfit just shares the same obsession with reheating old arguments as Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP.’