JOANNA Cherry has confirmed she will not be joining Alex Salmond's new Alba Party.
Speculation on whether the SNP MP would join the group mounted after this afternoon's launch.
Yesterday, Cherry said she would be taking time off for health reasons but she returned to Twitter this evening to clear confusion.
She said: "Yesterday I said I was taking some time out for health reasons. Any speculation to the contrary is incorrect. I intend to return to work as the SNP MP for Edinburgh South West when I am able. Thanks for all the good wishes."
Yesterday I said I was taking some time out for health reasons. Any speculation to the contrary is incorrect. I intend to return to work as the SNP MP for Edinburgh South West when I am able. Thanks for all the good wishes.
— Joanna Cherry QC (@joannaccherry) March 26, 2021
READ MORE: SNP MP Joanna Cherry announces she's 'taking time out for health reasons'
Salmond confirmed earlier today he will be standing for the party on the North East regional list section in May’s Scottish Parliament election.
Launching the new party in an online event, the former SNP leader said: “Today Alba are hoisting a flag in the wind, planting our Saltire on a hill. In the next few weeks we will see how many will rally to our standard.”
Cherry has been a vocal supporter of Salmond. Last month, she called for the Crown Office to release evidence which Salmond says shows there was a conspiracy against him by senior allies of Nicola Sturgeon.
Sturgeon has denied any plot by her allies against her predecessor and was found not to have misled parliament in two separate reports.
Cherry also hit out at Holyrood for redacting parts of Salmond’s written submission after it had been published and widely circulated. The redactions prompted claims political pressure had been applied to the Crown Office and called into question whether the Lord Advocate, who is head of the prosecution service, should also be a member of the Government.
Cherry said the case showed why the roles should be separate. “I believe it is time that Scotland considered moving to the same system as in England and Wales where a civil servant is employed as Director of Public Prosecutions quite separately from the political appointment of a Government law officer.”
READ MORE: Alex Salmond to lead new Alba Party into Scottish Parliament election
Salmond was last year cleared after a criminal trial of a series of allegations, including a charge of attempted rape.
He insisted on Friday that after the series of court cases and inquiries, it is now “time to move on”.
“I have wanted to talk about the future of Scotland for the last three years. Now I have got the opportunity thanks to the Alba Party,” he said.
“That’s what I intend to do, and I intend to do it in an entirely positive way.”
He said the party has been set up to win seats using Holyrood’s regional lists.
The proportional representation system at Holyrood sees MSPs elected from constituencies, with additional members elected from eight regional lists in a bid to ensure each party’s total number of MSPs is in proportion to the percentage of votes it receives.
READ MORE: Viewers across Scotland react to launch of Alex Salmond's Alba Party
While the SNP has been successful in winning constituency seats, Salmond said his former party could end up with no MSPs at all from the regional section of the ballot.
The latest opinion polls suggest the SNP on the lists “would win no seats whatsoever, despite having the best part of a million votes”, he said.
This would mean these votes are “totally wasted”, he said.
Salmond continued: “The Alba Party is a list party, we are standing only on the list, we’re not challenging the SNP in the constituency.
“Indeed we are saying vote SNP or for an independence party on the constituency section, we are giving that support.”
He said his new party will help “reinforce the momentum behind the independence cause”.
The Alba Party has said it will field at least four candidates in each of the regional lists.
Chris McEleny, who was voted in as an SNP councillor in Inverclyde, has resigned from Ms Sturgeon’s party to stand in the West of Scotland for the Alba Party.
Salmond said: “Over the next six weeks we will promote new ideas about taking Scotland forward, giving primacy to economic recovery from the pandemic and the achievement of independence for our country.
“We expect to field a minimum of four candidates in each regional list and we’re hoping to elect Alba MSPs from every area of Scotland.”
Salmond said the aim of the party is to work towards a “successful, socially just, environmentally responsible, independent country”.
The launch of the party comes days after Salmond announced plans to take legal action over the “conduct” of the Scottish Government’s top civil servant Leslie Evans.
He said the Permanent Secretary failed to take “real responsibility” for failings highlighted in two reports this week about the Government’s investigation of harassment complaints against him.
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