KENNY MacAskill’s decision to contest the Alba leadership against Ash Regan triggers the party’s first leadership election in its five years of existence.
Before MacAskill’s announcement, insiders told the Sunday National that the former justice secretary “doesn’t seem to want” the top job – something he has disproven by throwing his hat in the ring.
He has served as the acting party leader since the death of Alex Salmond last year. Regan joined the party in 2023, seven months after she came last place in the SNP leadership contest.
One pro-Regan party member told the Sunday National that Regan had the potential to win voters who might be tempted to vote Reform at the next Scottish Parliament elections.
They said: “If you’re pro-indy, pro a future for oil and gas, pro-industry, you’re anti-woke, Alba’s probably the pro-independence party for you.”
Backing Reform UK would be seen as a Unionist vote, they said, adding that independence supporters who are fed up with the status quo may want to vote for Nigel Farage’s self-proclaimed “anti-establishment” outfit.
They added: “If they vote Reform, that will be classed as a vote against independence – independence parties need to wake up to that and not smear those that don’t like their opinions.”
Regan’s bona fides as a culture warrior may help in this case, with the MSP having made her name when she quit as a minister to vote against Nicola Sturgeon’s transgender law reforms.
But MacAskill boasts greater experience in both the Scottish and UK parliaments, having served in Holyrood from 1999 to 2016 and then in Westminster from 2019 until last year.
He spent seven years in Salmond’s cabinet as justice secretary and made international headlines with his decision to free Abdelbaset al-Megrahi from prison, where he was serving a life sentence for his role in the Lockerbie bombing which killed 270 people.
MacAskill’s time as deputy Alba leader saw him spearhead the party’s campaign on keeping the Grangemouth oil refinery.
His work in Westminster was primarily focused on energy policy – including campaigning against subsea cables to take electricity from Scottish windfarms to stations in England.
For her part, Regan attempted to bring forward a referendum bill to give the Scottish Parliament the power to hold indyref2.
One Regan backer said that as a “young, articulate woman”, she could broaden the party’s appeal, adding: “If only people over 50 voted, we’d be winning seats.”
The party may stand to gain seats at the next Scottish Parliament election, with Alba polling “within the margin of error” of this in recent polls, according to one insider.
They failed to gain any seats at the last Scottish Parliament elections and candidates lost their deposits in every Westminster seat they contested last year – picking up just 11,784 votes across 19 constituencies.
Salmond previously told The National that he was not confident that MacAskill or Neale Hanvey would keep their seats in a 2023 interview – saying he would see “what odds come up” before placing a bet on his candidates.
His death at the age of 69 at a conference in Moldova last year sent shockwaves throughout UK politics – though some expressed hopes that it could mark the end of bitter divisions within the independence movement.
But those seem remote, with his one-time protegee and successor as first minister Nicola Sturgeon claiming earlier this year to have intervened “many times” when Salmond was being “rough” with colleagues.
That opened up new wounds, with Salmond’s widow Moira recently releasing a statement urging critics to “let Alex rest in peace”.
To one insider, years-old wounds seemed fresh. They said: “For certain individuals to continue to traduce him in the way that they have, to the extent that Moira had to make an intervention, it’s just very difficult to see how the movement can come together.”
The party was also rocked last year by the resignations of founding members Denise Findlay and Eva Comrie, with the latter running against MacAskill for the Alloa and Grangemouth constituency.
Elsewhere, the party’s media operation threatens to be derailed with the expected departure of spinner and general hand Chris McEleny, a man so closely associated with the party his WhatsApp picture depicts him as a superhero called “Alba Man”.
McEleny (above), who has served as the party’s general secretary since 2021, instigated a number of disciplinary cases against members who posted what Alba considered to be unacceptable comments on social media.
Pro-independence blogger James Kelly also revealed last week he had quit the party after going through what he described as a “Kafkaesque” disciplinary case.
But some remain positive the party can finally make its first electoral gains at the 2026 Holyrood elections by sticking with Salmond’s strategy of trying to persuade SNP voters to lend the party their vote in the regional list ballot.
One insider said: “There’s still enough time for the parties to collaborate and have a co-ordinated effort for the 2026 election where we come up with some kind of unified approach for the list.”
Another added: “There’s a place in Scottish politics for more than one pro-independence party and the polling consistently shows you that the SNP are going to perform well in the constituencies and not on the lists.
“From the nationalist perspective, the key argument is going to be: do you use your list vote to back a party that’s getting seats anyway or do you vote Alba?”
Their task is convincing pro-independence voters that even with bitter divides in their ranks and the loss of Salmond’s star power, Alba are still a serious prospect for advancing the cause of Scotland’s future.
