THE Alba Party have claimed they have more members than the Scottish Conservatives and Scottish LibDems.
In her opening remarks to members gathered at Eden Court in Inverness for the party’s conference, Alba’s chair Tasmina Ahmed Sheikh said the party was approaching a membership number of 7500.
She added that over 1000 new members have joined in the year to date.
Scottish Labour, the Scottish Conservatives and the Scottish LibDems all failed to say how many members they had when previously approached by The National.
In 2011, when Ruth Davidson was elected as leader of the Scottish Tories had around 5600 members – a figure she claimed increased by 2000 the following year.
Sheikh told members: “I’m delighted to announce that our membership is now approaching 7500 with well over 1000 members joining since the turn of the year.
“That means we have overtaken both the Liberal Democrats and the Tories, and are now setting our sights on Labour’s branch office.
“It also means of course that we are fast closing in on the Greens and I’m confident that by autumn conference, we will have become Scotland’s second biggest independence party.
“What is most important about this, is that we are a party of activists. Experienced and committed activists. Independence activists. We are all first activists in Alba.
“That means that every new member of Alba means another activist for our national cause. That and only that, should be our driving force.”
The Scottish Greens previously told The National they have 7646 members as of late April while the SNP previously announced their membership numbers stood at 74,889 – up from the 72,186 reported at the beginning of March.
The SNP was at the centre of a transparency row during the leadership contest after its former head of communications quit claiming he had been given inaccurate data when fielding questions from the media.
The National has approached both the Scottish Conservatives and Scottish LibDems for comment.
