Alba’s leadership drama is escalating. First Christina Hendry threw her hat in the ring, and now Corri Wilson’s stepped forward as well. What started as one contested election is becoming a full leadership campaign with multiple candidates.
Wilson brings a different profile to the contest than Hendry. She’s got parliamentary experience, she’s been around independence politics for years, and she’s known as a solid constituency representative. Her pitch is probably slightly different; less activist energy, more conventional political competence.
What’s interesting is what multiple candidates in the race signals about the party. It suggests there’s genuine disagreement about direction, but also that people see the leadership as genuinely contestable. That’s actually healthy democratic practice. It’s also publicly messy, which is the downside.
The SNP would love this to be a big distraction for Alba. While Alba’s having internal elections and factional debates, the SNP’s consolidating its position ahead of Holyrood elections. From the SNP’s perspective, Alba tying itself up in leadership drama is perfect.
But for Alba members, this is serious. They’re choosing who leads their party and, implicitly, what Alba’s going to be in the next Parliament. That matters if you’re invested in Alba as a political force.
I’m curious about who emerges from this. The winner will have legitimacy from having won a contested election. That’s valuable. But they’ll also emerge into a party that’s shown its internal divisions publicly. Healing that and creating unity will be important.
Alba’s got seats to defend and a case to make to Scottish voters. The leadership election determines whether they do that from a position of strength or from a position of visible weakness. The outcome matters more than the drama.