Labour want by-election as Hanvey quits SNP for Alba
He holds Westminster seat in Fife
CALLS have been made for a by-election after a second SNP politician defected to Alex Salmond's new Alba Party.
Neale Hanvey follows fellow MP Kenny MacAskill in joining the newly-formed operation, having previously been suspended by the SNP for using anti-Semitic language on social media.
He apologised for any offence caused in the days following his suspension.
Mr Salmond announced he would be standing as a candidate in the upcoming Holyrood election as part of plans to gain a "supermajority'' for independence supporters in the Parliament.
Scottish Labour campaign co-chair Neil Bibby said: "The defection of the controversial Neale Hanvey to the Alba Party reveals the utter disarray that the SNP is in.
"Scotland deserves so much better than this politics of grudge, personality and ego.
"Neale Hanvey and Kenny MacAskill must both stand down and give their constituents the chance to elect politicians more interested in guaranteeing Scotland's recovery than endlessly refighting yesterday's war.''
The Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath MP lost his role as SNP vaccine spokesman in February after posting a message on a crowdfunder page raising money to bring a defamation action against Aberdeen North MP Kirsty Blackman and others.
The launch comes after a turbulent period for the SNP and the Scottish Government, led by Mr Salmond's successor Ms Sturgeon.
He said his party would be carrying a "positive'' campaign and urged voters to back the SNP or another pro-independence party in the constituency seats.
The Alba Party will only be standing candidates in the regional lists in an attempt to boost pro-independence numbers in Holyrood.
Scottish Liberal Democrat campaign chair Alistair Carmichael MP said: "Like paint chipping off an old and decaying wall, Neale Hanvey's defection is the latest episode in the nationalists' bitter, twisted and divided civil war.''