Ex-Salmond aide considers legal action against Alba over ‘defamatory statements’

The Alba Party is facing further potential legal action after being accused of defaming its former general secretary amid a police investigation into its finances.

Chris McEleny said he has instructed lawyers to take action to force Alba to “cease and desist further smears” he says are intended to injure his reputation and “exert pressure on Police Scotland”.

He said they would also “seek remedy for the defamatory statements already issued”.

Alba said any defamation action will be “strenuously defended”.

It comes after Police Scotland said it is investigating “irregularities” within Alba’s finances after a complaint by the party’s leadership on May 26 of this year – exactly two months after Kenny MacAskill, a former SNP justice secretary, beat MSP Ash Regan for the leadership of the party.

In a statement, Alba said Alex Salmond – who founded and led the party until his death last year – had ordered a review into party finances while he was alive because “he had concerns with the management of the party”.

A spokesperson said “a number of internal financial and administrative irregularities have come to light before and after” Mr McEleny was dismissed from his position as general secretary earlier this year.

Mr McEleny has been engaged in a bitter dispute with the party ever since.

The former SNP councillor, a close ally of Mr Salmond until his death, is already pursuing the party through an employment tribunal for unfair dismissal after accusing it of subjecting him to leaks and smears in an attempt to damage his character.

He claims he was treated unlawfully and has been subjected to a “prolonged campaign of smears from senior Alba figures since the death of the former first minister in 2024”.

He now says the party faces “a second costly legal action” after accusing it of releasing a “highly defamatory statement” over the police probe “intended to smear” him.

He told the PA news agency: “I have no comment to make in regard to the live proceedings of the claim I have made to an employment tribunal.

“However, I can confirm I have now referred Alba Party to specialist defamation lawyers who I will instruct to act on my behalf to ensure the party cease and desist from any further damaging smears made against me and to seek remedy for the defamatory statements already issued.”

A source close to Mr McEleny added: “Chris is bitterly disappointed about any suggestion that Alex Salmond was complicit in not being fully aware of how his political party was being run.

“These smears, and suggestions Alex Salmond had any concerns about Chris, are all the more ridiculous considering Chris lived in London with Alex in a flat he shared with the Alba Party chair Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh for several years.

“For clarity, throughout Chris McEleny’s entire tenure as general secretary of Alba Party, former justice secretary Kenny MacAskill was chair of the party’s finance and audit committee, the party was serviced by a professional accountancy firm, and Chris is completely content that the finances of the party under the leadership of Alex Salmond were both sound and compliant with the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.”

A spokesperson for the Alba Party said: “The Alba Party has rightly referred financial and administrative irregularities uncovered as a result of internal audit to the relevant authorities.

“As there is now a live police investigation we cannot comment further at this stage.

“But any action for defamation by Chris McEleny will be strenuously defended.”