A FACTION of the SNP who left to join Alba have been branded as destabilising agitators and blamed for racist abuse, a series of leaked reports reveal.

The documents, obtained by The Herald on Sunday, reference members of the “split away party” as being responsible for abuse against BAME SNP members, particularly online.

They have also been accused of disrupting the party and launching attacks from within, before some left to join Alba in March this year.

The documents were submitted by the party’s BAME convener Graeme Campbell and national secretary Stewart Stevenson prior to the party conference last weekend.

Mr Stevenson reported that the party had been under “significant attack” from within for the first time in decades, following its conference in 2020, but said the situation had calmed down by “late March”.

Alex Salmond launched Alba in March, with a number of outspoken SNP members leaving to join the new party in the subsequent weeks.

 

The national secretary mentioned inside briefings and leaks from the party’s ruling body, the National Executive Committee (NEC), which some said had been hijacked by a faction within the SNP.

In the run-up to the NEC elections at the November 2020 party conference, the SNP’s Common Weal group, a left-wing party faction, and those who were in support of the SNP women’s pledge, which opposed extending some transgender rights, launched a campaign to get their candidates elected to the body.

Their efforts were a success, with several members of the slate being elected to various roles within the ruling body and its sub-groups. However, several months later, a number of people within the faction had quit their positions and the party for Alex Salmond’s Alba, such as Neale Hanvey MP and councillor Lynn Anderson, while some remained within the SNP but also left the ruling body, including MPs Douglas Chapman and Joanna Cherry.

Mr Stevenson hinted that those involved in the faction were responsible for insider attacks.

He wrote: “Immediately after our last national conference, it was clear that we were under significant attack both from without, dominated as ever by Unionist distortions promoted by certain media outlets, but also for the first time in many decades, a small group of people inside the party.

“The National Executive Committee of the party, for a few months, was no longer a safe place to debate options for action. Distorted posts on social media appeared from within NEC even while meetings were in progress.

“A small faction bombarded the national secretary with ‘complaints’, in some cases very large numbers from particular individuals over a very short period of time.”

Mr Stevenson continued: “In late March, the atmosphere changed and a more normal debate of options resumed at the National Executive Committee after the election.”

Graeme Campbell, the SNP’s BAME convener, wrote in an internal review that there had been “severe racist hostility” against “prominent” black and minority ethnic party members over the past two years, but “particularly in late 2020 as what became the split away party developed”.

He said the party had been “slow to act” and admitted that the SNP did not have proper procedures to deal with such abuse, mirroring previous comments reported by The Herald on Sunday from the party’s governance review group, led by deputy leader Keith Brown.

Mr Brown had reported that at times the party’s national secretary had been overwhelmed with complaints and had been unable to handle them, with the failure causing harm to complainants.

Mr Campbell acknowledged the same, writing: “Our party – like on the transphobia issue – was slow to act and our disciplinary processes were simply not fit for purpose in quickly dealing with racist abuse and discriminatory attitudes.”

One Alba party source told The Herald on Sunday that the SNP were “very keen” to blame the new party but should instead concentrate on their own problems.

They said: “It’s clear from all these reports that the SNP are trying to paint Alba as the bogeyman, and blame former members who have now joined Alba for their own mistakes and failings without any evidence to back up these claims.

“Instead of trying to blame Alba, the SNP would do better to concentrate on their own problems and failures, including the woeful lack of progress on securing independence.”

Another source who was involved in the Common Weal group campaign for the NEC elections in 2020 said there had been no “conspiracy or attempted coup” at the time.

They said: “There was no attempt to destabilise the SNP, or attack its leadership, by launching a campaign for election to the NEC. That was not the intention. People were frustrated by what was happening from within the party.

“Nicola Sturgeon was thought to be trying to consolidate too much power and only allow a small number of her close allies to set the direction the party would move in.

“There were many of us who felt that our concerns and views, about issues like gender recognition act reform but also on the timeline for another referendum, were not being listened to.

“That is why we decided to try and effect change from within. When Alex Salmond launched Alba, it was a natural fit for some people who had been unhappy with the SNP leadership and the lack of progress they were making on independence, and so it makes sense that some people left.

“To suggest there had been an attempt to organise NEC membership deliberately to try and attack the party, our own party at the time, is just nonsense.”

However, an SNP source said the reflections of Mr Campbell and Mr Stevenson were “completely accurate”.

They said: “It is sad that some people felt the need to try and bring down the party before leaving. The series of events that happened prior to Alba’s formation has led some to believe there was a hidden hand in all of this from Alex Salmond or others who then became prominent within Alba.

“Ultimately this doesn’t help the case for independence, it only harms it.”

The Alba Party did not provide a response when asked about the details within the reports.

The SNP were contacted for comment.