Alex Salmond has admitted voting for the SNP at the General Election despite being the leader of the rival Alba Party.
The former SNP leader and Scottish First Minister said his party did not field a candidate in Aberdeenshire North and Moray East.
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross became one of the major Tory casualties on Friday when he lost the seat to the SNP.
The constituency was subject to controversy because the outgoing leader had chosen to stand there in place of David Duguid, who the party said was too sick to run. Duguid denies this.
His decision also angered some Tory MSPs because he had previously vowed not to stand at Westminster again. Ross is already a member of the Scottish Parliament as well as a professional football linesman.
Scottish Labour and Reform UK faced their own controversies in the same seat.
Anas Sarwar’s party was forced to suspend his candidate Andy Brown over reports he shared social media posts downplaying Russia’s involvement in the Salisbury poisoning.
Meanwhile, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK faced calls to suspend their candidate Jo Hart after it was reported she called the Royal Family “benefit scroungers” in a rant against the monarchy.
Salmond said he gave his former party a “saving grace” by voting SNP at the General Election.
The former FM, whose public dispute with his former party saw him form Alba, told LBC the SNP was aided by Ross’s “shenanigans”.
He said: “I voted SNP, because we had no Alba candidate here in the north east of Scotland and I’m one of the few people in Scotland who can say I voted for a successful SNP candidate because in this seat, because of the shenanigans of the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Douglas Ross, who stabbed one of his colleagues in the back, metaphorically.
“Many people here decided that’s not the sort of person they wanted representing the north east of Scotland.
“So, this was the SNP’s gain of the election and I and Alba supporters contributed to it, so I’m glad to give the SNP their saving grace.”
Salmond also rejected the idea that the Scottish independence movement had suffered as a result of the SNP’s poor election results.
The SNP won just nine seats, down from 39 in the 2019 election.
Salmond said the movement was “alive and kicking”, adding: “In the election this week the SNP were dealt a devastating blow, but they were judged on their recent record in the Scottish Government.”
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