ALBA Party reports tweets apparently suggesting violence against candidates to Police
It follows a Twitter spat this weekend over comments made by one of the party's candidates during their Women's Conference.
Last updated 12th Apr 2021
The Alba Party say they've reported several tweets "apparently suggesting physical threats" against female candidates of the party to the Police.
Tweets reported include those from a Green Party candidate in the North East of Scotland, and another SNP Candidate.
It comes after a Twitter outrage over the weekend after comments of Alba's Central Scotland candidate Margaret Lynch in regards to two LGBT charities were tweeted out.
The reported comments were made at the party's Women's conference over the weekend, but they claim reports on Twitter of Lynch's comments did not "accurately reflect concerns expressed".
The Alba party say Ms Lynch was expressing concern about two Scottish based organisations among others supporting an international group that have allegedly "openly advocated decriminalisation around adolescent sexual behaviour."
The party did say in a statement that the two organisations concerned - Stonewall Scotland and LGBT Youth Scotland were “reputable organisations who had done much good in society”.
The Alba Party say the Twitter abuse contained proposals of meeting to target people individually and the suggestion to Dundee Council that on of their candidates, a Primary School teacher of 36 years, was not fit to teach.
Party Leader and Former First Minister Alex Salmond said Women participating in the past weekend's conference are entitled to do so "without being subjected to Twitter pile-ons or even worse threats of violence"
He said:
"People who threaten our women candidates will be held to account. Men who put at risk women's jobs and livelihoods will be faced down. Name-calling of ALBA women by male SNP MPs and candidates will be challenged, and media who fan the flames of this disturbing behaviour will be reported to the appropriate regulator.
"Let me be clear. As the First Minister who introduced equal marriage in Scotland, I would never tolerate any homophobic behaviour." He continued.
Mr Salmond concluded that the matter had been reported to the Police, and as such no further comment would be made by the party - and added "We have also referred the hacking of data from the Women’s Conference given the degree of the individual threats now being made."
A spokesperson for the Scottish Greens said: "The Scottish Greens have a zero-tolerance approach to violence. This tweet was unacceptable, and we instructed the member to remove it, which has now been done. This matter will now be dealt with through our internal complaints & conduct process.
"The party also has a zero-tolerance approach to homophobia, including dangerous and sinister conspiracy theories which associate LGBT+ people with paedophilia. This is the worst kind of hate speech, so is shocking to see the Alba party defend it."