Nicola Sturgeon: Blackford grilled by host over SNP leader

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Alba Party founder Laurie Flynn said membership had now passed 4,100 – claiming this gave the new group more members than the Scottish Liberal Democrats. The former Scottish first minister launched the party a week ago as part of his return to frontline politics with a ‘Candidates Conference’ taking place today.

The new members include two serving MPs who were elected under the SNP before defecting, Kenny MacAskill and Neale Hanvey.

In a statement, Ms Flynn said: “Little did I think when I founded the party the impact that it would have.

“After exactly one week since our public launch, our membership has surged past that of the Liberal Democrats, a party which has been in existence for 150 years.”

But the Scottish First Minister claimed Alex Salmond was now hindering, and not helping, the cause of Scottish independence.

Ms Sturgeon added: “I can’t and don’t envisage working with him, or his new party.”

She stated: “That’s not about personal differences. It is firstly because what I think he is doing hinders the cause of independence rather than helps it.

“In the short term that is because I think…..there is a risk that asking people to gamble with their vote actually jeopardises an SNP majority.

“But beyond that, the tone and the approach he is striking I don’t think is necessarily particularly helpful to building a majority of the population behind independence.”

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said: “Whether it’s Nicola Sturgeon’s nationalists or Alex Salmond’s nationalists, they are just going to focus on another referendum.”

But he stressed the party could still pose a threat to the Union despite polling undertaken by Survation for DC Thompson Scotland revealing the party would get 3 percent of the regional list vote.

The survey also found more than half of those asked believed Mr Salmond was detrimental to the cause of independence.

Mr Ross added: “Alex Salmond still has several weeks to garner enough support to elect more nationalist MSPs who will see our parliament 100 percent focused on another referendum rather than our recovery.

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Speaking about the defections within the party, Ms Sturgeon said: “I suspect, knowing him as I used to, Alex Salmond would have been wanting and expecting a bigger defection of elected representatives from the SNP to his new party.”

She added: “Kenny (MacAskill) has obviously not been that comfortable in the SNP for sometime, so he has made his decisions, and he is entitled to make that decision.”

Speaking about Mr Hanvey, the SNP leader stated: “I don’t know Neale obviously as well as I know Kenny.

“My principal experience of Neale during the 2019 election was having to suspend him from SNP membership because of anti-Semitic comments.”

But former Nationalist MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh who is standing in Central Scotland said: “Alba may be the ‘new kid on the block’ but already we are setting the positive agenda for Independence and change at this election.”

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