CHRIS McEleny is lining up a bid to become an MP at next year’s General Election.
The Alba party general secretary declared his intention to stand in a New Year’s message “if approved to do so”.
McEleny, who was also an Inverclyde councillor for ten years, did not say which seat he would be interested in contesting but it is thought that the new Inverclyde and Renfrewshire West constituency would be likely.
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Revealing his intentions to stand, McEleny wrote: “As we enter another new year, pensioners shiver and children go hungry despite the fact that Scotland is an energy rich nation.
“But instead of that oil wealth, and the new renewables bounty we are close to unleashing keeping our homes warm and ensuring child poverty is eradicated, international capital keeps the profits of Scotland’s wealth, Westminster seizes the revenues and we get left to pay the price.
“In 2024 the independence movement has in front of it one of the most important hurdles it has ever faced. If Labour see a revival in Scotland it will be as if all the incremental gains we made since 2007 never happened. It’ll be New Labour 2.0 and the cause for Scottish independence will have suffered a setback.
“That is why it is vitally important that independence supporters have the choice to vote for independence at the ballot box – and this is the choice Alba Party have resolved to give them."
The former SNP council group leader added that Scotland “must not turn back” to Labour, which he called a “pale imitation of the Tories”.
He went on: “And of course at the General Election, Alba needs candidates with the experience to stand up for Scotland and make the case for independence.
"I have never been one to ask people to vote for what I won’t stand for. And I have never been one to sit out of a political fight that I believe in. I am therefore considering contesting next year’s election, if approved to do so.”
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