THE new Alba Party has announced that it will hold its first conference in Greenock.

Leader Alex Salmond says the inaugural mass meeting will be held in September at the town hall.

He says the chosen venue 'sets out a marker' of the party's anti-poverty credentials as it is in the heart of central Greenock, which was ranked the most deprived area of Scotland in national deprivation figures.

Alba say that they 'will be putting a strong focus on addressing poverty and inequality' as they fight next year's council elections.

Local elected member Chris McEleny, who quit the SNP earlier this year to join Alba, has been appointed their interim general secretary.

Mr McEleny said: “All Alba Party members that join before the end of June will be entitled to attend the conference which will be held on September 11 and 12.

"I am delighted to have secured Greenock as the location for the conference.

"I will be setting out in the coming weeks how our members can help shape the agenda of the conference and our policy direction going forward."

The party says its membership has grown since the Scottish Parliament elections 'on a weekly basis' and that it aims to overtake the Greens and Scottish Conservatives in membership size by the time of its Greenock get-together.

Alba members will elect the party’s national office bearers in the lead-up to the conference and the results will be announced on the opening day before delegates elect the party’s inaugural national executive of ordinary members.

Mr Salmond hopes that Covid-19 public health restrictions will be eased in time to allow around 750 delegates to attend the gathering.

He says he aims to use the conference as a platform to push for another independence referendum.

The former first minister said: “It strikes me as passing strange that if you can hold Euro 2020, if you can hold a Scottish election and if you can hold the COP26 summit in Glasgow, then why on earth can’t you hold a Scottish independence referendum?

"Perhaps the requisite enthusiasm is not there to push that case forward because the constitutional issue has gone cold since the Scottish election and we’ve got to heat it up again.

“If our suspicions are confirmed then come September the wind from the River Clyde will be blowing firmly in ALBA’s direction at our historic inaugural conference in Greenock Town Hall.”