A VETERAN former councillor who defected to Alba has rejoined the SNP and has called for parties across the pro-independence movement to come together.
Brian Topping, who was a Fraserburgh councillor for 38 years before losing his seat in the 2022 local elections, informed the party he would not be renewing his membership.
He informed his old friend Alex Salmond of his decision before the former first minister died on October 12.
Topping told the Press and Journal he almost returned to local politics as he wanted to stand in the Aberdeenshire Council’s Fraserburgh by-election this week, but his family asked him not to.
Instead, he campaigned for local SNP candidate Mike McDonald, in an area where Alba hadn’t fielded a candidate.
Topping told The Press and Journal: “A lot of friends in the SNP were keen to have me back.
“I was nearly standing at this by-election. The branch was keen.”
He told the newspaper that his wife and children were against the idea of him returning to the local authority due to the amount of work he’d put in during his 38 years as a councillor.
“It’s only fair to my family,” he added.
Topping said there were no hard feelings with his departure from Alba and he was devastated by long-time friend Salmond’s death.
He told the P&J: “Alex knew I was unhappy, but we didn’t have any falling out. He knew I hadn’t renewed.
“We were on the best of terms. I’m so upset at his passing. We were very close.
“Alex was the best politician in the UK. He could wipe the floor with any of them.”
Salmond’s Alba Party appealed to Topping because he could stand in the Holyrood and local elections without endangering other pro-independence candidates.
However, he was unhappy over Alba’s decision to run for more than a dozen candidates in the general election, which has a winner-takes-all voting system.
“I wasn’t too happy. I’d even said to Alex, I don’t agree with that,” he said. Topping told the P&J he did, however, understand why Salmond had made the decision, even though he disagreed.
“In Alex’s defence, he’d written to Humza asking for a meeting trying to get the parties to meet.
“Humza didn’t even have the courtesy of giving Alex a reply.
“Alex had his reasons.”
Topping added he would like to see unity across Scotland’s pro-independence parties as he said: “Everything I’ve done has been about bringing folk together.
“I have nothing against Alba. I would still like the Yes movement to come together, so we can sing from the same song sheet.”
At the local elections in 2022, Topping was seen as one of Alba’s best hopes at the time but only got 5.8% of the vote.
He said: “The few votes I did get, a lot of them were personal votes.
“I lost my seat, because Alba was obviously a new party.”
