Alba must regroup and build on the solid foundation built by Salmond

A modest disclaimer: I have been an Alba member since its inception in February 2021 and was a candidate in the July General Election.

The party’s performance in that election was modest despite vigorous campaigning by our 19 candidates. Our highest vote share, in Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy, was 2.8%, where the sitting member was Alba’s Neale Hanvey (below).

I polled a lowly 1.2% in East Lothian, despite being a former MP for that constituency. With Alex gone, are the prospects any rosier for the Holyrood elections in 2026?

The obituaries for Alex Salmond were rife with barbed judgements regarding his founding and championing of Alba. Most commentators – even sympathetic ones – tended to dismiss Alba as either a rare political misjudgement on Alex’s part, or else a folly displaying more of ego than common sense.

At any rate, the verdict seemed to be that Alba was an aberration in the career of Alex Salmond. However, I can assure everyone that he was in deadly earnest about building Alba as a battering ram to win independence. He died in harness, not simply assuaging his ego.

I’ve noticed that there are those in the broader nationalist movement who have taken umbrage at any ostensible claims by Alba to Alex’s political legacy. We are being lectured sternly that Alex Salmond “does not belong to Alba”.

What Alex would have made of these defensive squibs from the nationalist fringes is obvious. Alex devoted his last few years to creating and building Alba. He did not suffer fools gladly. (I might add, there has been an uptick in Alba membership since his sadly unexpected death.)

READ MORE: Why the political ghost of Salmond will retain his seat at the table

Nevertheless, despite Alex’s heroic efforts – and his welcome return to mainstream TV punditry – Alba has so far failed to make an electoral breakthrough. Without Alex, is that breakthrough now a forlorn hope?

Is it time perhaps to pack up and return to the SNP? Or put efforts into developing a broader, inclusive non-party nationalist front? Or throw our energies into single-issue campaigns where Alba has had some previous success, such as the fight to save the Grangemouth refinery, or the court case directed against Labour’s withdrawal of the universal Winter Fuel Payment to pensioners? What are the credible options?

Alex had a plan for Alba. Remember that it was he more than anyone else who took the SNP from fringe party to majority government, then to the brink of achieving a Yes vote in the 2014 independence referendum.

Alex was focused on the 2026 Holyrood elections, where he thought Alba would gain a foothold if it could reach 5% or more in the polls. Just before his untimely passing, Alex saw his party start to breech that 5% mark in a number of council by-elections. At the start of this month, in the Lochee ward in Dundee, the Alba candidate beat the Liberal Democrats and the Greens, polling 5.5%.

Alex assumed he would lead the Alba group at Holyrood as the “big beast” in the chamber. If, after the 2026 election, there was a Labour-led Unionist administration, Alex would surely have become the de facto leader of the political opposition.

And if the SNP remained clinging to office, it could not do so without Alba’s help. In that circumstance,

READ MORE: One-of-a-kind Alex Salmond leaves gaping hole in Scottish politics

Alba would be a kingmaker, even with only a handful of MSPs. As it was, Alex was hoping for 15-20 Alba members. Personally, I though that was an exaggerated number designed to encourage the troops. But if Alba starts polling above 5% regularly, then a bridgehead of MSPs is possible.

But Alex is no longer with us. Who will lead the party? The Alba autumn party conference, originally scheduled for November 15, has been postponed for obvious reasons. No-one is in the mood for a contest.

Alex's old comrade in arms, Kenny MacAskill, is interim leader. MacAskill could make a sensible choice as a permanent fixture. He is passionate about independence and socialism, and a practised campaigner.

He was at the forefront of defending Grangemouth while still an MP, shaming the woeful Labour opposition benches. He’s a solid TV performer and a heavyweight intellectual. Making MacAskill leader would cement Alba’s position on the centre-left.

But there are other good choices. Ash Regan (above) has shown a lot of grit as Alba’s sole MSP in the Holyrood chamber. As the party’s Holyrood spokesperson, she will lead the party’s 2026 campaign. And a woman might stand out given the pale, male leaderships of the SNP and big Unionist parties.

Or Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, Alba’s combative party chair, could bring both glamour and excitement to the Scottish political battlefield, which is not overburdened with charismatic politiciansfigures.

Is there really a place in the crowded political firmament for Alba, whoever is leader? I continue to think yes. The SNP is drifting, ideologically, in policy terms and in its commitment to actually campaign for independence.

Grangemouth is a lightning rod here. Successive SNP administrations since 2014 have allowed the Scottish economy to decay and fall into foreign ownership. The renewables sector is almost wholly in foreign hands.

The economy is being systematically bled dry of wealth and real jobs under the SNP’s watch. Don’t expect Keir Starmer and Anas Sarwar’s Scottish Labour band to be any better. There is a big hole in Scottish politics for a pugnacious, militant, campaigning, left-wing party that puts independence first.

Any strategy for securing independence runs through securing a popular majority at Holyrood. That is Alba’s goal. But once there, it is not a matter of begging for a second referendum. It is about demanding independence negotiations and facing down Westminster till it accedes.

That includes mobilising demonstrations and challenging the writ of the Treasury to interfere in Scotland’s affairs. We need a government that plays hard ball, not a Westminster coterie who think asking the odd question at PMQs is the height of resistance.

Which suggests that Alba needs to start recruiting more young people and giving leadership to the wider independence protest movement, as well as its parliamentary work. There remains a pressing need for a structured, non-party and all-party independence convention. That won’t happen by accident. It needs political leadership. Alba has to be part of that wider movement and eschew the sectarianism that the SNP exhibited in recent years.

We also need to modernise our independence campaigning approach. Alba can set the pace by creating a super-modern social media campaign machinery. That is not about individuals posting random thoughts on the internet.

Rather, it is launching an AI-driven, permanent propaganda campaign where every individual in Scotland is interacted with every week – an electronic dialogue. We need to own cyberspace for the independence cause, not fritter time and effort on random door-knocking. We are in a technological war for independence.

That said, I remain pessimistic of the intellect. The loss of Alex Salmond creates a big hole in Alba’s morale and capability to be taken seriously. But we owe it to him to try and fill it.