THE Alba Party leadership candidates have addressed recent party infighting and allegations of bullying within the party.
Alba MSP Ash Regan and acting leader Kenny MacAskill battled it out on The National’s online hustings on Thursday night.
Our political reporter Hamish Morrison – with the aid of our readers who shaped the debate by leaving questions – scrutinised the two candidates to replace Alex Salmond as party leader.
One anonymous commenter claimed that Alba has lost a lot of activists due to bullying and harassment.
The National previously reported on how the then general secretary Chris McEleny emailed a group of senior Alba members to say that MacAskill faced “allegations of bullying and harassment” – throwing the contest into chaos.
McEleny, who is also running to be deputy leader, has since been fired for “gross misconduct”.
The commenter, who went by a pseudonym, asked: “How do you get them back on board?”
MacAskill questioned the fact it came from someone not prepared to put their name to it.
“I don't believe that there have been lots of activists leaving due to bullying and harassment. Any disciplinary action has been taken by the Disciplinary and Conduct Committee, of which I am not and never have been a member, so that is the position there.”
The former SNP MP claimed that Alba is “quite united” at the moment, with the exception of “employment in HQ” – seemingly referring to McEleny’s firing.
“I look forward to working with them, not simply in terms of building up the Alba activist base, but working with the much broader independence campaign that is out there.”
Regan, meanwhile, said that she has heard from activists who have left the party.
“I have heard from some people, particularly from women, who felt that they left the party because things weren't quite working the way that they were hoping that they would,” the MSP said.
“So, I think we need to be careful that we make sure that people are not being targeted in any way inside the party, that people are being treated fairly.”
She added: “We do occasionally have issues with members saying things online, maybe directing harassment towards elected members and so on.
“So we need to have a zero-tolerance and process to that. We need to have a fair process, disciplinary procedure, but everybody needs to be treated the same. Everybody in the party needs to have confidence that the rules are fair, they're transparent, everybody can understand them, and if you break the rules, you will be held to account.”
MacAskill, meanwhile, said the infighting is “distractive from the positive message that we should be putting out as a party”.
He added: “We've got an election coming up very quickly. It will go by like a flash. I don't think we can afford to waste time fighting amongst ourselves.
“We need to come back together as a party. We need to have complete focus on being a united front and putting forward a positive message to the voters.”
MacAskill then claimed that while Salmond had a “larger than life personality” and would “dominate” meetings as a result – he has sought to bring in a more “collegiate” atmosphere and “steady the ship”.
Regan agreed that Alba “shouldn't be washing our dirty laundry in public”.
But she didn’t appear to agree with some of the decisions made by MacAskill whilst acting Alba leader.
“If we've got issues inside the party, we should be handling them inside the party. It shouldn't be going outside.
“So, I'm not comfortable with some of the decisions that have been taken recently, and I don't think they're doing the party any favours.”
