TOMMY Sheridan has said he could be tempted to join the SNP if Ash Regan becomes the next party leader.
The former MSP, currently an Alba Party member, told The National he was “definitely” committed to working with the Edinburgh MSP should she win the race to succeed Nicola Sturgeon.
And he suggested he could join the SNP under a Regan leadership.
He said: “Yes to working with her. Definitely. As to the SNP membership – who knows? Perhaps [she] could bring Alba members like me back into one independence-serious party.”
Regan has reached out to other independence parties, including Alba, the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) and the Scottish Greens to build support for her campaign.
She is proposing an independence convention, bringing together all pro-Yes parties to make plans to secure Scotland’s exit from the Union.
Alex Salmond said he was “delighted” to confirm his party would take part in the convention, as did the SSP leader Colin Fox.
Regan has previously branded her opponents’ plans for independence “wishy washy” and said her “voter empowerment mechanism”, which would treat every election as a de facto referendum, was a stronger plan.
This would mean any election in which voters backed pro-Yes parties by more than 50% would be sufficient to open negotiations with the UK Government, she said, insisting this approach would be respected by international courts and other countries.
Sheridan served one year in prison for perjury after his defamation lawsuit against the News of the World.
The paper reported in 2006 that the former MSP had attended swingers’ parties and took cocaine.
In light of the perjury conviction, the News of the World’s publishers in 2016 tried to appeal against Sheridan’s successful defamation case against them in which he won £200,000.
