Alba party leader Alex Salmond has admitted he voted for the SNP at last week's general election to stop Douglas Ross from becoming his local MP.
The former first minister is a long-term resident of the rural Aberdeenshire village of Strichen, part of the constituency the Scottish Conservatives leader was aiming to win on July 4.
But a surge in support for Reform UK saw the Tories' vote share collapse in the Aberdeenshire North and Moray East seat - and allowed SNP candidate Seamus Logan to win with a majority of 942.
Ross had also faced a backlash amid accusations he blocked former Tory MP David Duguid from standing in the election.
Alba decided not to field a candidate in the constituency.
Salmond launched his breakaway pro-independence party in 2021 after previously quitting the SNP, but it has so far struggled to make an electoral breakthrough.
The former Nationalists' leader told LBC: "I voted SNP, because we had no Alba candidate here in the north east of Scotland. I’m one of the few people in Scotland who can say I voted for a successful SNP candidate because in this seat, because of the shenanigans of the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Douglas Ross, who stabbed one of his colleagues in the back, metaphorically.
"Many people here decided that’s not the sort of person they wanted representing the north east of Scotland.
"So, this was the SNP’s gain of the election and I and Alba supporters contributed to it, so I’m glad to give the SNP their saving grace.”
Salmond also rejected the idea that the Scottish independence movement had suffered as a result of the SNP’s poor election results.
The SNP won just nine seats – a drop of 39 from the 2019 election.
Salmond said the movement was “alive and kicking”, adding: “In the election this week the SNP were dealt a devastating blow, but they were judged on their recent record in the Scottish Government.”
Alba lost both of its two MPs - Kenny MacAskill and Neale Hanvey - at the election and polled a total of fewer than 12,000 votes across 19 constituencies.
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