TWO high-profile SNP figures are scheduled to speak at an Alba Party Burns Supper next month.
Former minister Alex Neil and high-profile ex-MSP Joan McAlpine are both listed as speakers at the upcoming event at the Salutation Hotel in Perth in early February.
Both are known to have ideological differences with the current leadership of the SNP, particularly on the controversy surrounding the Gender Recognition Reform Act.
The National understands it is not against the rules or the code of conduct of the SNP for members to appear at events organised by rival parties.
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Both Neil and McAlpine (below) told this paper they speak with people across the Yes movement, regardless of political differences and both say they remain members of the SNP.
Neil said: “I am happy to talk to all pro-independence people and parties.
“I also talk to Unionists if I think I can persuade them to change their minds on independence.”
McAlpine, who said she was invited by her friend the Alba Party's chair Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, added: “I speak about [Robert] Burns all the time to all sorts of people, he transcends political parties.”
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Neil (below) served in the Cabinets of both Alex Salmond, now Alba leader, and Nicola Sturgeon, before he left the Scottish Government in 2016.
McAlpine, a former newspaper journalist, served as Salmond’s parliamentary liaison officer between 2011 and 2015.
Before leaving the Scottish Parliament in 2021, she gained prominence for her criticisms of the SNP’s planned gender recognition reforms.
Alba said the event was not a fundraising event and that the money raised through charging for tickets would cover costs.
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