General Election: Neale Hanvey on ‘broad appeal on doorsteps' for Alba despite challenging polls

In 2017 he was the SNP group leader only to lose his seat at the council elections, and, two years later he defied all odds to become Kirkcaldy’s MP standing as an independent after his party decided to ditch him with his name already on the printed ballot papers.

Since then he has rejoined and left the SNP, and found his political home with Alba where he is one of two MPs at Westminster. That’s the condensed version. The twists and turns behind each landmark moment could fill a novel.

Mr Hanvey goes into the 2024 election defending his record, but staring at one leading poll suggesting not only a Labour in but a possible last place for Alba. it isn’t an outcome he recognises.

“It’s been a full on campaign, “ he said, “but in such a short timespan, as a small party it is hard to get a gauge on how things are going. The big polls do not give us any space and that is challenging.”

He points to the doorstep reaction as a more accurate barometer. “Lot of people have said they have every intention of voting for me again, because of my strong position on women’s rights and child protection and LGB. People who have been impacted by Covid vaccines are voting for me on my record of supporting them. There is broad appeal out there. We won’t know until polling day, but you have to defend your seat.”

Asked to define his qualities, he opted for “resilient, principled, honest and determined in my efforts and choice.”

His parliamentary path has taken on some contentious, and divisive issues, starting with his suspension as an SNP candidate weeks before the 2019 election for social media posts which were deemed anti-Semitic.

Looking back on that time, he said: “Our campaign was going straight forward, but with no real energy to it. When the SNP came after me it exploded in lots helpful ways - people came from all over the country to support me. I was the first person to stand up to Nicola Sturgeon

“I am not anti-semitic and I wasn’t going to allow people to claim that. I wasn’t going to walk away either, and hand the seat to Labour as people wouldn’t have had an independence candidate to vote for. The whole team was overjoyed with the result but we didn’t really celebrate. What happened left a nasty taste in my mouth, and I had to clear my name.”

There is no doubt the gulf that now exists between Mr Hanvey and the SNP - “the distance between their policy and my values is growing ever further” - he is now at the forefront of Alba as it contests its first ever General Election.

He said: “There is frustration at the SNP in government and we hope the support that won’t go to it will be motivated to come to Alba if they want independence. I also know of people in Labour who have told me directly they have every intention of voting for me.as they don’t want to support their candidate, and there is backing in the constituency.”

For Mr Hanvey, the election is a chance to stand on his record as MP.

“We have brought in almost £170,000 and are still recovering money for constituents,” he said. “We have handled 12,000 pieces of case work and I have a great team which works really hard. These are real, tangible things we have delivered. We have delivered what is important.

“I can stand on my record of what I have achieved, my work through the pandemic supporting business, my advocacy of women’s rights and LGB rights where others have been too timid to speak up. People are frustrated by politicians who are the gravy-trainers - that was never me

“The job of the MP is to improve economic activity, and I had an engineering company over the line for BiFab which would have brought jobs to the area.

“The biggest challenge we all face is an economic one. The cost of living crisis is a direct consequence of greed, but it is made all the more challenging because we now tolerate low-paid work and food banks as a fact of life. Ultimately it's about the choices government makes and there is a lack of courage from those in power to stand with the people.”

However the vote goes on July 4, Mr Hanvey still has work to do, politically speaking.

“I’m totally relaxed,” he said. “It was going to be one term at Westminster,and get independence. The SNP gave up on that, I kept going. We still have a job to do. Alba is a small party just starting - you have to start somewhere. There is not another political party I could vote for.”