Why Alba and Alex Salmond have their sights set on Holyrood, not Westminster

Alba are not focused on winning seats at next week’s general election - they are concentrating on the Holyrood election in two years’ time.

Earlier in the election campaign, party leader and former first minister Alex Salmond confirmed he will not be standing for Westminster - instead he is going to stand for Holyrood in the Banff and Buchan Coast seat.

It is clear the party is throwing all of its eggs into the 2026 basket, and they aren’t even trying to hide the fact they don’t believe they have what it takes to win a seat on July 4.

“The Alba Party are clear that it is the Scottish Parliament election in 2026 that remains our strategic priority” - that is a line from the very first page of their Westminster manifesto.

Numerous issues listed in this manifesto are actually issues which are devolved to Holyrood and show where the party’s priorities lie, such as increasing the Scottish Child Payment, council tax reductions, free school meals, increasing the number of nurses and GPs, and completing the dualling of the A9.

Speaking at the manifesto launch in Dundee, a city which voted ‘Yes’ in the 2014 independence referendum, Mr Salmond said this election is about “progress” rather than getting Alba MPs elected to the House of Commons.

He said: “I see this as a way to signal support, which will be worth the effort to achieve independence in the foreseeable future.

“We expect to do well in this election, and I think the results from key constituencies will surprise most.

“We’re going to do all of that, yes, but we also want to introduce the concept of how to get Scotland’s independence, and we can’t do that in the few weeks of an election campaign.

“It will be a two year campaign.

“I can tell you with great confidence we will make progress in this election and in two years’ time, we will sweep the board.”

He added he will write the party’s manifesto for the 2026 Scottish election “with the expectation of being part of a nationalist coalition”.

The first-past-the-post voting system for Westminster doesn’t favour smaller parties such as Alba, making it unlikely they will see much material success.

During the last parliament the party had two MPs - Neale Hanvey and Kenny MacAskill.

Mr Hanvey is standing in the Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy constituency, and Mr MacAskill will contest the Alloa and Grangemouth seat.

MRP polling suggests Labour will win both of these seats, with the SNP coming in second place.

Perhaps it is then the obvious path for the party to take to look ahead to 2026 instead, where they have a better chance.

The Scottish Parliament uses the additional member voting system, which gives smaller parties a better chance of winning seats.

Mr Salmond says he expects the party to get in excess of 15 per cent of the vote in 2026, which would send 24 Alba MSPs to Holyrood.

In 2021, the party received less than two per cent.