Alba Party

The Alba Party (; ''Alba'' being the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland) is a Scottish nationalist and pro-independence political party in Scotland. Founded in February 2021, it was led by former first minister of Scotland and SNP leader Alex Salmond until his death in 2024. Salmond launched the party's 2021 Scottish Parliament election campaign in March 2021, with the party standing only region (list) candidates, but no constituency candidates.

Two members of Parliament (MPs) in the UK House of Commons defected from the Scottish National Party (SNP) to the Alba Party on 27 March 2021, and a member of the Scottish Parliament Ash Regan defected on 28 October 2023. Several former SNP MPs also joined the Alba Party.

In the 2024 general election, the Alba Party stood candidates in 19 constituencies across Scotland but achieved just 11,784 votes and won no seats. All their candidates lost their deposits. To date, no Alba Party candidate has been elected at any election.

History

Background

Alex Salmond served as leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from 1990 to 2000 and again from 2004 to 2014, and as First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014. He was succeeded in both positions in 2014 by his former deputy, Nicola Sturgeon. Salmond resigned from the SNP in 2018 following accusations of sexual misconduct, which he denied. He was acquitted of charges made against him in a subsequent court case in March 2020. Later that year, the possibility of Salmond leading a new party supporting Scottish independence was discussed, in the context of a feud between Sturgeon and Salmond, who accused Sturgeon's "inner circle" of plotting against him. Polling conducted in July 2020 reported that 40% of those who voted SNP at the 2019 general election would back a new independence-supporting party if it was led by Salmond.

Founding

The party was founded and registered with the Electoral Commission by the retired television producer Laurie Flynn on 8 February 2021. ''Alba'' (pronounced in Scottish Gaelic and Scottish English, in British English) is the Gaelic name for Scotland. On 26 March 2021, Salmond announced at the party's election launch that he had joined the party and would become the new leader, taking over from Flynn, after "discussions with Laurie and others from other list parties" over the prior weeks. During the announcement of candidates, it gained its first elected member, councillor Chris McEleny, who previously had served as the SNP group leader on Inverclyde Council and was due to be an SNP candidate for the 2021 Scottish Parliament election. The MPs Kenny MacAskill and Neale Hanvey, as well as the former MP Corri Wilson, joined the party on 26 March. The SNP's national equalities convener, Lynne Anderson, also defected to Alba. BBC Scotland's political editor Glenn Campbell said the list of defectors to the party included "those who fear that gender self-identification for trans people poses a threat to women's rights" as well as politicians who personally support Salmond and his approach to Scottish independence.

2021 Scottish Parliament election

The party announced plans to stand at least four candidates for the list vote in every region in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election. Intended candidates included Salmond standing for the North East Scotland region as well as former SNP members Chris McEleny standing for the West Scotland region, Eva Comrie for the Mid Scotland and Fife region (for which she was previously the SNP candidate), and Cynthia Guthrie for the South Scotland region. Caroline McAllister, the SNP's women's convener and depute leader of West Dunbartonshire council, joined the party and was announced as a candidate in the West Scotland region. The party endorsed voting for the SNP in the constituency vote while voting for the Alba Party for the list vote, to ensure more pro-independence MSPs are elected.

On 26 March 2021, the Leader of Action for Independence, former SNP MSP Dave Thompson, stated that the party would be standing down all their candidates to support Alba. Tommy Sheridan who had been seeking election as part of Action for Independence, joined the Alba Party on 28 March. On 29 March, former professional boxer Alex Arthur was announced as a list candidate, whilst former SNP MPs George Kerevan and Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh and former MSP Jim Eadie joined later that day.

The party failed to win any seats in the election, after attracting only 1.7% of the vote. It received 44,000 votes which was enough proportionally to win two or three seats, but its support was spread across multiple regions, with no concentration large enough to produce a seat. Salmond said that the party's results were "creditable" given its recent founding. Some commentators argued that Alba had benefitted Sturgeon individually by removing some of her most vocal internal party critics from the political scene.

A few months after the election, on 28 June 2021, the Electoral Commission rejected all seven of Alba's official descriptions. In a round-up of recent decisions, the Commission said all seven proposed ballot paper slogans failed to "meet the requirements of a description".

Criticism

Sturgeon and the SNP criticised the new party, questioning Salmond's fitness to take public office given the sexual harassment claims against him. Sturgeon said she would refuse to have any dealings with Salmond unless he apologises to the women who had accused him of harassment. Alex Salmond refused to apologise during his titular sexual harassment scandal and was found not guilty of all charges.

Lorna Slater, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, also criticised the new party, describing it as "a party thrown together", Neil Mackay called the party " Trumpian" and "a hotchpotch of social conservatives and nationalist fundamentalists". The party was further criticised as "cynical" for potentially using women's rights as a campaign issue despite making misleading statements about one of their candidates' role in Glasgow City Council's equal pay dispute.

In April 2021, Margaret Lynch claimed that the SNP's Scottish Government was funding LGBT rights groups that wanted to lower the age of consent to 10 years old. The SNP described this as "untrue" and Lynch was later criticised by Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie. ''The Scotsman'' repeated her claim that LGBT organisations which received "£2.8 million of Scottish public funds" have signed a letter advocating lowering the age of consent to 10 years of age.
LGBT charity Stonewall called on Lynch to retract the allegation about their organisation and apologise. ILGA World released the statement that the claims are dangerous and irresponsible, that they urge those making or sharing them, to stop".
LGBT Youth Scotland described Lynch's claims as "vicious lies" and "an act of prejudice and discrimination that repeats harmful myths". When asked by ''The Scotsman'' whether Lynch's position was also that of the party, Alba refused to comment. Former SNP councillor Austin Sheridan left the Alba Party, describing Lynch's comments stating there was "no way I can be part of a party that tolerates such views. In an article in ''The Times'', Lynch claimed that trans rights would allow access by "sexual predators". However, Alba as a party had not condemned the claim made by Lynch, members citing the Isla Bryson case during the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill push through where Bryson, a trans woman, was jailed within a women-only prison for sexually assaulting two women before transitioning. Bryson was later relocated to a male-only prison, receiving eight years in jail.

2022 Scottish local elections

For the 2022 Scottish local elections, the Alba Party announced that 111 candidates would be standing in councils across Scotland to win as many as possible. Salmond launched the party's manifesto at the Caird Hall in Dundee with the main aim of electing the first councillors under the Alba banner. Ahead of the election, Salmond said that he was confident that the party would win seats.

The party failed to win any seats at the election, attracting 0.7% of first preference votes. All of the councillors who defected to the party from the SNP failed to be elected, including Christopher McEleny, the party's General Secretary who only received 126 votes. In response to the result, Salmond expressed his disappointment with the outcome and said that it would take time for the party to build enough support to have candidates elected.

Further activities

The week after the elections, Kamran Butt, who although not elected was the most successful Alba candidate, defected to the SNP. He claimed that joining the SNP was the only way that independence and strong governance could be delivered in Scotland. The same day, Salmond stated that all pro-independence parties needed to work together if Scottish independence was to be achieved. He said that the proposed 2023 independence referendum would need to take place, but if it didn't then there would be huge political change in Scotland in which Alba would play a strong part.

In December 2022, polling suggested that Alba could win seats at the next Scottish Parliament election. 34% of voters who backed the SNP in the 2021 Scottish Parliament constituency vote said they would vote for Alba with their regional list ballot to return a greater number of pro-independence MSPs, with 19% support overall.

Alba announced they would not contest the upcoming Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election, called after former SNP MP Margaret Ferrier was suspended from the House of Commons and recalled from her seat for breaching COVID-19 regulations. They accused the SNP of rebuffing their call for only one pro-independence candidate and said that this would allow the SNP to “fly solo” in the ballot. The seat was lost to Labour, who won an outright majority.

On 28 October 2023, former leadership candidate Ash Regan defected to Alba becoming the party's first member of the Scottish parliament and the party leader in the Scottish Parliament. The same month the " Scotland United" technical group was formed in the House of Commons between Alba and independent MP Angus MacNeil.

In November 2023, Salmond confirmed that the Alba Party would contest the 2024 United Kingdom general election. It stood nineteen candidates, including its former MPs Kenny MacAskill and Neale Hanvey. It failed to win any seats, with its highest share of the vote in a single constituency being 2.8% in Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy. All their candidates lost their election deposits.

On 12 October 2024, Salmond died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 69, whilst attending an event in North Macedonia. Kenny MacAskill became the interim leader. The candidates in the 2025 Alba Party leadership election are MacAskill and Ash Regan.

Alba chose not to field a candidate for the 2025 Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election, which is being held due to the death of Christina McKelvie. The party said their decision not to stand was as a mark of respect to McKelvie's work as an MSP, and to the wider independence movement.The party also stated its intention to field list-only candidates at the 2026 Scottish Parliament election.

Ideology and policies

The Alba Party is a Scottish nationalist, advocating Scottish independence, as an "immediate necessity". It describes its objective as being to build a "socially just and environmentally responsible" Scotland. The party proposes that, now that the reign of Queen Elizabeth II has ended, Scotland should become a republic with "an elected head of state with similar powers to the '' Uachtarán na hÉireann'' (the President of Ireland)", with the final document of a written constitution for this purpose to be confirmed by a referendum. Its platform also opposed proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act until a citizens' assembly can be formed to discuss and debate the perceived conflicts between sex- and gender-based rights. Alex Salmond described holding a gender-critical belief as a "cardinal aspect of ALBA policy".

Alba supports a future independent Scotland joining the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). The party describes itself as social democratic on its website and has politicians with a variety of positions as members, such as Tommy Sheridan and George Kerevan on the left-wing, Kenny MacAskill on the centre-left, along with Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh and Ash Regan on the centre-right. According to Fraser McMillan, Alba's voters in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election were found to be slightly to the left of the SNP supporters and did not meet "the profile of the socially conservative “alt-nat” caricature." However, Emilio Casalicchio writing for Politico in 2023 called the party socially conservative and The Guardian's Scotland editor, Severin Carrell labelled the party as centre-right in an article in 2024.

In March 2022, Salmond unveiled a 38-page "Wee Alba Book" which makes the "fundamental case for independence", covering issues such as Europe, currency and borders.

Alba is officially opposed to further gender reforms as proposed by the SNP and Labour. Alex Salmond criticised the 2023 Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill as the "worst legislation in the history of devolution". Alba MSP Ash Regan cited this as a reason for joining Alba and has called for an end to further legal action against the section 35 ruling by the UK Government.

The party officially describes itself as left-of-centre, and claims to be more left-wing than the Scottish National Party. Some political commentators, such as Gerry Hassan, expressed skepticism of the party's claim to be "more left-wing and working class" than the SNP. Hassan noted that "it is not that difficult to find a position to the left of the current centrist SNP" and claimed that the Alba Party's allegiance to the left is superficial, predicting that the party would "in a populist manner attempt to position itself to the left of the SNP on the Growth Commission’s economics, the currency question, public spending, and Trident." In contrast, The National described Alba as a left-wing party.

Regarding the party's ideology, Salmond stated: "I had an idea a while back when leading another political party. I thought that if the SNP could present as a coherent left of centre political party it could replace the Labour Party as the dominant force in Scottish politics. As it was for the SNP and Labour so is it now for Alba and the SNP." After Salmond's died in 2024, George Kerevan wrote: "Making MacAskill leader would cement Alba’s position on the centre-left." He also praised MacAskill, the acting leader of the party, as "passionate about independence and socialism".

Kezia Dugdale described the Alba Party as "fundamental nationalists" who "want an independence referendum yesterday, definitely today, and not in two years", while also noting that the party's opposition to "more socially liberal policies" of the SNP is the key difference between Alba and the SNP. Similarly, ''The Political Quarterly'' argues that the SNP and Alba correspond to the gradualist-fundamentalist split amongst Scottish nationalists, with the SNP representing gradualist nationalism and the Alba Party attempting to form a radically separatist, fundamentalist force. However, ultimately many radical Scottish nationalists chose to remain in the SNP instead of defecting to Alba.

Leadership

Leader of the Alba Party

Depute Leader of the Alba Party

Director of Operations of the Alba Party

Leader of the parliamentary party, Scottish Parliament

Leader of the parliamentary party, House of Commons

Representatives

The party has not had any candidates directly elected. Their representatives, listed below, all defected having been elected as SNP candidates.

MPs

MSPs

Councillors

Following Salmond's announcement, eleven councillors had joined the party by the end of March 2021. All eleven had been elected as SNP candidates, though three had already left that party. This included three councillors on Aberdeenshire Council and two on North Lanarkshire Council.

Alba nominated 111 candidates for the 2022 Scottish local elections, including the 13 incumbent councillors who were elected as members of other parties before joining Alba. None were elected.

In October 2023, Chris Cullen, a councillor in South Ayrshire Council defected from the SNP to Alba. In March 2024, Karl Rosie became the party’s second councillor when he also defected to Alba. He had been elected in Thurso and North West Caithness on The Highland Council and had left the SNP the previous month to sit as an independent.

Electoral performance

House of Commons

Scottish Parliament

Local elections

Notes

References

External links

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{{Nationalism in the United Kingdom

2021 establishments in Scotland
Anti-gender movement
Centre-left parties in Europe
Centre-right parties in Europe
Nationalist parties in the United Kingdom
Political parties established in 2021
Republican parties in the United Kingdom
Organisations based in Edinburgh
Scottish independence
Scottish nationalist parties
Organisations that oppose transgender rights in the United Kingdom
Scottish republicanism
Social conservative parties
Alex Salmond