Scottish politics requires an "electric shock" when voters go to the polls tomorrow, Alex Salmond has claimed.
The Alba leader and former First Minister is campaigning across the east coast of Scotland today to try and drum up support for his pro-independence party.
Salmond blamed the Conservatives for allowing Scottish families to be "taken to the cleaners" by energy companies while branding Labour opposition "lacklustre".
Alba - which only launched in March last year - is standing 111 candidates in tomorrow's council elections but polls suggest it could struggle to make a breakthrough with voters.
Salmond is campaigning today alongside MPs Kenny MacAskill and Neale Hanvey, who both quit the SNP to join Alba last year.
Salmond said: "Scottish families are being taken to the cleaners in energy bills and household finances are being wrecked.
"The Tories are presiding over this disaster and don’t care while the opposition response from Labour is lacklustre."
The former SNP leader added: "Instead of using the opportunity of Scotland’s vast resources to create a new public electricity company to deliver clean, green and affordable electricity to the people, the SNP Government have sold out the first offshore ScotWind acreage for a one off payment of £700 million.
"It is a giveaway of short sighted lunacy which makes the Ferguson fiasco look like efficient governance. Scottish families simply cannot afford anymore penalty kicks blasted over the bar by their own government.
"Scottish politics requires the electric shock that ALBA progress can bring if independence and control of our own resources is to be treated as an urgent necessity not an indefinite objective."
MacAskill said: "The defining issue of this campaign has been the rising cost of fuel bills.
"It is time to cut energy bills by a third through a Windfall Tax on the excess profits of the energy giants and ease the financial pain being felt by families across the country.
"Alba is the only party with a clear plan to boost household budgets by doubling the Winter Fuel Payment, introducing an annual £500 payment to those receiving council tax discount and increasing the Scottish Child Payment to £40 per week."
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