Yousaf Needs to Rise to National Unity Test

ALBA leader, former First Minister, Alex Salmond’s reaction to Humza Yousaf’s speech.

He said:

"Humza Yousaf has to urgently realise that the SNP is only part of the independence movement and it is the part which is in difficulty.

If the next General election is now back to being a key independence decision point, as the First Minister seemed to suggest, then the only sensible way to fight it, is as a movement commanding 50 per cent public support rather than as a single political party, somewhere in the mid 30s.

That is the way to establish a clear point of departure between the current difficulties of the SNP and the future hopes and principle of an independent Scotland. He needs to treat the offer of fighting an election as Scotland United for Independence seriously.

The SNP right now desperately needs the backing of the national movement, rallying at Bannockburn today, and to get it they have to start treating it with respect, not as voting fodder. Interestingly, Lesley Riddoch, speaking in Dundee after Humza, encapsulated some of these very thoughts in a few sentences to substantial applause in the hall. That indicates that many SNP members also understand the importance of the national movement. Their leadership should catch up with the requirement for unity in the National Movement."