MP Neale Hanvey becomes second SNP official to defect to Alba Party
The newly-formed Alba (Scotland) Party is continuing to gain momentum as a second MP from the ranks of the Scottish National Party (SNP) defects to it.
Neale Hanvey, who is the MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, has become the second SNP official to defect to Alba in as many days.
On Saturday (March 27), former Scottish Justice Secretary and current MP for the East Lothian constituency, Kenny MacAskill, became the first senior SNP member to jump ship by joining Alba.
Alba was formally launched by former SNP leader, Alex Salmond, on March 26 on the mandate of creating a “supermajority” for Scottish independence at the Holyrood (Scottish Parliament) election scheduled for May 06.
Salmond has pledged to field candidates in the regional lists only to boost pro-independence numbers at Holyrood without undermining the much larger SNP.
In justifying his defection to Alba, Hanvey said the new party provides a “tonic for our movement” in addition to offering an “optimistic vision for Scotland’s impending transition to an independent European nation”.
"The Alba party's growing membership will shape our policy priorities in the coming week. The people of Scotland will always be my priority so it's a very real honor to be standing for Alba and an independence supermajority", Hanvery added.
In a sign the British establishment is panicking about the prospect of fending off two pro-independence parties at the Holyrood election and beyond, a former top Tory apparatchik in Scotland has said “opponents” of Scottish independence should “waste no time” in “resisting” the Alba Party.
David Mundell, who was the Secretary of State for Scotland between 2015 and 2019, described the threat from Salmond and Alba as a “real and present danger”, which have to be “stopped” before they help facilitate a second independence referendum.
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