{"id":96909,"date":"2021-03-28T14:50:36","date_gmt":"2021-03-28T14:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/?p=1195138"},"modified":"2021-03-28T14:50:36","modified_gmt":"2021-03-28T14:50:36","slug":"two-scottish-mps-defect-to-the-alba-party-with-indy-supermajority-on-the-cards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/03\/28\/two-scottish-mps-defect-to-the-alba-party-with-indy-supermajority-on-the-cards\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Scottish MPs defect to the Alba Party with indy \u2018supermajority\u2019 on the cards"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two members of the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) have defected to Alex Salmond&#8217;s new Alba Party. Neale Hanvey followed East Lothian MP Kenny MacAskill in joining the newly-formed operation.<\/p>\n<h5>Indy supermajority<\/h5>\n<p>Salmond announced he would be standing as a candidate in May\u2019s Holyrood election on 26 March. This would be as part of plans to gain a \u201csupermajority\u201d for independence supporters in the Parliament. As the <em>BBC<\/em> explained:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>by running candidates across Scotland, it has the potential to change the nature of the race in more or less every seat &#8211; partly because of the way Scotland&#8217;s voting system works.<\/p>\n<p>Under that system, MSPs can be elected either as a representative of a constituency or from one of eight regions of Scotland.<br \/>\nIn 2016, the SNP got the vast majority of its wins from the constituency contests &#8211; it had just four regional list MSPs.<br \/>\nThe Scottish Greens stand primarily on the regional lists, and usually aim to sweep up the &#8220;second votes&#8221; of pro-independence types who vote SNP in their constituencies.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Salmond told <em>Times Radio<\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I hope and believe that Scottish nationalists at Westminster will be looking to the day that he or she would be transferred to the Scottish Parliament and it\u2019s quite reasonable that Kenny MacAskill and Neale Hanvey think that that is going to be within this term of the parliament given the political opportunity that we now sense.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h5>Neale Hanvey<\/h5>\n<p>Hanvey was previously suspended by the SNP for using antisemitic language on social media. He apologised for any offence caused in the days following his suspension.<\/p>\n<p>The MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath also lost his role as SNP vaccine spokesman in February. This was after posting a message on a crowdfunder page raising that was money to bring a defamation action against Aberdeen North MP Kirsty Blackman and others.<\/p>\n<p>Hanvey said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The people of Scotland will always be my priority and it\u2019s therefore a very real honour to be standing for Alba and an independence supermajority.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><!-- EMBED START YouTube --><\/p>\n<figure><iframe title=\"Alba Party announces new candidate: Neale Hanvey MP declares for Alba\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sPoBh9vsCa0?start=11&amp;feature=oembed\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n<p><!-- EMBED END YouTube --><\/p>\n<h5>Unhappy unionists united<\/h5>\n<p>Scottish Labour campaign co-chair Neil Bibby said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Neale Hanvey and Kenny MacAskill must both stand down and give their constituents the chance to elect politicians more interested in guaranteeing Scotland\u2019s recovery than endlessly refighting yesterday\u2019s war.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Scottish Liberal Democrat campaign chair Alistair Carmichael MP said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Like paint chipping off an old and decaying wall, Neale Hanvey\u2019s defection is the latest episode in the nationalists\u2019 bitter, twisted and divided civil war.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><!-- EMBED END PA Quote --><\/p>\n<p>Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Sturgeon and Salmond may now despise each other but they are united by their obsessive determination to rip Scotland out of the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n<p>All focus should be on the pandemic and our recovery but Sturgeon\u2019s SNP and Salmond\u2019s ultra-nationalists want this election to be another divisive fight about the constitution.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h5>Kenny MacAskill<\/h5>\n<p>Former Holyrood justice secretary MacAskill said he would not be standing down to allow a by-election. He told <em>Sky\u2019s Ridge on Sunday<\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>During the Parliament I served in, Alex Salmond and indeed John Swinney, the Deputy First Minister of the Scottish Parliament, stood on a dual mandate and represented both Westminster and Holyrood.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll be seeking to represent Holyrood as well as containing and continuing to serve my constituents in East Lothian.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>North Lanarkshire councillor Lynne Anderson has also defected from the SNP to Alba.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"ePC92saDVhRL7xc5QwAk3tvTqJ6FOKUnYZ1BbMgHGofWupIrd4Slzy\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Really delighted to welcome Cllr Lynne Anderson to the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlbaParty?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@AlbaParty<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>As the SNP\u2019s National Equalities convener I know she will be a great candidate in Central Scotland, and as part of a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SuperMajority?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SuperMajority<\/a> for independence she will be a great MSP<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Christopher McEleny (@ChrisMcEleny) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChrisMcEleny\/status\/1375966645676560389?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 28, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/span><\/p>\n<p><!-- EMBED START Twitter --><\/p>\n<p><!-- EMBED END Twitter --><\/p>\n<h5>Turbulence<\/h5>\n<p>The party launch comes after a turbulent period for the SNP and the Scottish Government, led by Salmond\u2019s successor Nicola Sturgeon. The Alba Party will only be standing candidates in the regional lists in an attempt to boost pro-independence numbers in Holyrood.<\/p>\n<p>Salmond urged voters to back the SNP or another pro-independence party in the constituency seats.<\/p>\n<p>Lorna Slater, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This new party has been thrown together at the last minute by a man who is less popular in Scotland than Boris Johnson is. The Scottish Greens have shown progress in every election in Scotland. We\u2019ve had MSPs in the Parliament since the beginning and we have an excellent track record of delivering things like fairer taxes in Scotland.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>An SNP spokesman said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The SNP is focused on tackling Covid-19 and securing a strong, fair and green recovery for Scotland as an independent country in a post-pandemic referendum. Only both votes SNP on May 6 can put Scotland\u2019s future in Scotland\u2019s hands \u2013 not Boris Johnson\u2019s.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><!-- TRACKING START GA --><script>(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','\/\/www.google-analytics.com\/analytics.js','ga');  ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'}); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Conor Riordan, PA Scotland'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', 'a8f74a15-4253-4ac9-ba10-3537dcae6a13'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:news,paservice:news:scotland,paservice:news:uk'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', null); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'anonymizeIp', true); ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'Salmond hopes no need for Scots MPs after two defect to Alba Party'});<\/script><!-- TRACKING END GA --><\/p>\n<p>By <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/author\/thecanary\/\">The Canary<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/uk\/news\/2021\/03\/28\/two-scottish-mps-defect-to-the-alba-party-with-indy-supermajority-on-the-cards\/\">The Canary<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Neale Hanvey has followed East Lothian MP Kenny MacAskill in joining the newly-formed operation.<\/p>\n<p>By <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/author\/thecanary\/\">The Canary<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1541,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15636,8125,5588,5625,906,4,474,15661,6971,5660,1395],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96909"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1541"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96909"}],"version-history":[{"count":136,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110811,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96909\/revisions\/110811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}