Alex Salmond admits he voted SNP at the general election

The former first minister now heads up the Alba Party - however there was no Alba candidate on the ballot paper in Mr Salmond’s constituency of Aberdeenshire North and Moray East.

This seat was a straight fight between the SNP’s Seamus Logan and Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, who was controversially shipped in as the candidate at the last minute, replacing David Duguid.

Mr Duguid is currently receiving hospital treatment in Glasgow, and Mr Ross has been forced to resign as party leader over the fall-out.

But Mr Salmond has since admitted he voted for Mr Logan, who went on to win the seat by 950 votes. 

Speaking to LBC, Mr Salmond said: “I voted SNP because we had no Alba candidate here in the north-east of Scotland.

“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.”

Mr Salmond also insisted the independence movement is “alive and kicking”, despite the SNP going down to just nine MPs.

He said: “In the election this week the SNP were dealt a devastating blow, but they were judged on their recent record in the Scottish Government.”

It was a disastrous election night for Alba - all 19 candidates lost their deposits at the election after collectively only receiving 11,784 votes.

The party’s previous two MPs Kenny MacAskill and Neale Hanvey both lost their seats, receiving just 638 votes and 1,132 votes respectively. 

Even before the election was held, the party had shifted its focus onto the 2026 Scottish election.