Ash Regan and Kenny MacAskill to face off in Alba leadership debate

Ash Regan and Kenny MacAskill will be grilled by STV political editor Colin Mackay on Thursday night as they seek to become the next leader of the Alba Party.

Edinburgh Eastern MSP Regan and former justice secretary MacAskill are vying for the leadership position ahead of a conference later in March.

Nominations to stand for leader and deputy leader of the party closed on Sunday, with each post having two candidates confirmed.

Former MP Neale Hanvey and former councillor Chris McEleny will battle it out for the deputy leader position.

The contest comes after the death of former first minister Alex Salmond, who led the party from its creation in 2021 until he passed away in October last year.

MacAskill, who defected to Alba when the party was first created, has been the party’s acting leader since Salmond’s death at a conference in North Macedonia.

Regan, the Alba Party’s sole representative at Holyrood, previously stood against former first minister Humza Yousaf and deputy first minister Kate Forbes to become leader of the SNP back in 2023, following the resignation of Nicola Sturgeon.

She came third in that election, after receiving 11% of the first preference votes.

Regan defected to Alba in October 2023 after saying the SNP had lost its focus on independence.

Watch the Alba leadership hustings on Scotland Tonight at 10.40pm on Monday or catch up on STV Player.