Alex Salmond announces Alba will field 100 candidates in local elections

The Alba Party will field at least 100 candidates in the Scottish local council elections in May, its leader Alex Salmond has said.

The former first minister spoke to the party’s spring conference at Hampden Park in Glasgow on Saturday.

He also attacked the current Scottish Government, saying the ferries scandal at Ferguson Marine showed it was “becoming incompetent and accident-prone”.

Two Scottish MPs and a number of councillors are members of the Alba Party, which was launched in March 2021.

Opening his speech by addressing the war in Ukraine, Mr Salmond said: “Firstly, we condemn all illegal invasions regardless of the perpetrator. That has been our stance since Vietnam and has continued through Palestine, Afghanistan, Yemen and Iraq.

“Secondly, our movement urges reconciliation, peace, diplomacy – de-escalation, not escalation.”

Saying the Alba Party had just reached its first birthday, he continued: “We are in fine, rude health.

“People said we wouldn’t last a month, nobody would be interested.

Alex Salmond at his ALBA Party Spring Conference at Hampden. (Picture credit: John Devlin)

“Now we’re 6,700 strong and 100 of us and more will carry the party banner into the elections in six weeks’ time.”

He also accused his former party of failing to progress the case for Scottish independence, saying: “There’s been naethin’ daein’ (nothing happening) on independence over these last eight years.”

Mentioning the “ferries fiasco”, he continued: “Even the most ardent supporters of independence know that the SNP/Green administration is becoming incompetent and accident-prone.”

Alex Salmond at his ALBA Party Spring Conference at Hampden. (Picture credit: John Devlin)

Closing his speech, he said: “The Arbroath Declaration – it said, among other things, as long as 100 of us remained alive then we’d keep the flame of independence burning strong.

“Well, we have more than 100 candidates in this election.

“Let’s go forth from this our National Stadium and set this nation alight.”

In February, Mr Salmond announced he was suspending his show on the Kremlin-backed network RT due to the war in Ukraine.

RT later had its licence revoked by the regulator Ofcom.

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