Former SNP MP Angus MacNeil joins Alba

Former SNP MP Angus MacNeil has joined the Alba Party.

He represented the Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Western Isles) seat at Westminster for the SNP for 19 years between 2005 and 2023.

He was suspended and then expelled from the party in 2023, following a row with its then chief whip Brendan O'Hara.

MacNeil then sat as in independent before losing his seat to Labour's Torquil Crichton in the July general election.

Announcing his move to Alba, MacNeil criticised the SNP for failing to develop a strategy to achieve Scottish independence.

“It is six years since the SNP hierarchy proclaimed it didn’t need a Plan B and then when the Plan A ran out they hadn’t a clue what to do,” he said.

MacNeil is considering running at the Holyrood elections in 2026.

“I might put myself forward if there were indications that people wanted me to do that. If it helps to kick start independence I would do,” he said.

Alba was founded by former First Minister Alex Salmond in February 2021. He led the party until his death in October.

Following his expulsion from the SNP, MacNeil sat as an independent MP in the "Scotland United2 group, with then Alba MPs Kenny MacAskill and Neale Hanvey.

Alba general secretary Chris McEleny said MacNeil had been in talks with Salmond to join the party before his death.

"Angus Brendan MacNeil will not be the last high-profile new member of Alba Party in the coming weeks and months," he said.

“Angus is one of the most experienced parliamentarians in Scotland. His experience as the former chair of the Energy Select Committee will be warmly welcomed in Alba Party as we continue to promote policies that highlight the absurdity of fuel poor Scots living in an energy rich Scotland."

MacNeil was just 34 when first elected to Westminster.

A close ally of Alex Salmond, he was vocal in his condemnation of Tony Blair's decision to invade Iraq and it was his complaint to the Metropolitan Police which led to the "cash for honours" investigation in 2006.

But he was often the source of some controversy within his party.

In 2018, he defied the advice of his Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, and continued to appear on Salmond's talk show on RT, the Russian state-owned television channel.

He was found guilty of careless driving following a collision on Barra in October 2020. A motorcyclist, who was 17 at the time, was left with a broken leg.

MacNeil was disqualified from driving for three months and fined £1,500.