ANOTHER senior member of the SNP has defected to Alex Salmond’s Alba Party.

Caroline McAllister, who was elected SNP National Women’s Officer in November, will now stand on the West of Scotland list for Alba in May’s Holyrood election.

The West Dunbartonshire Councillor has now given up her office bearer post with the SNP.

Her defection follows that of MPs Kenny MacAskill and Neale Hanvey, SNP list candidates Cllr Chris McEleny and Eva Comrie, former MP Corri Wilson, and former Local Government convener Cllr Lynn Anderson, a worker for MP Joanna Cherry QC.

Cllr McAllister said: "I am delighted to join the Alba Party. As a Councillor, and the former SNP National Women’s Convener, I’m really looking forward to working with my colleagues in the Alba Party to ensure women’s rights are front and centre of the new Scottish Parliament I hope to be a member of."