Fergus Ewing dodges question on whether he will defect from SNP to Alex Salmond's Alba

dailyrecord.co.uk:

An MSP suspended by the SNP has dodged a question on whether he will defect to Alex Salmond’s Alba party.Fergus Ewing also twice refused to say if he had spoken to the former First Minister this week.Ewing, son of the late SNP trailblazer Winnie Ewing, has been an outspoken critic of the party’s leadership in the past year.The SNP group at Holyrood this week voted to suspend him for one week after he backed a motion of no confidence in Green minister Lorna Slater.He can appeal, but rumours are swirling over his future after he made a defiant speech after the suspension was announced.He could sit as an Independent until the end of this Parliament or even jump ship to Salmond’s new party.Asked by the Record if he would defect to ALBA, he said: “Come on.

Any serious questions?”Ewing was also asked if he had spoken to Salmond this week.He replied: “Look, I don’t really see how I have to start explaining who I speak to and who I don’t.”He said after being asked the same question: “Well, look, I’m sorry I’m not going to answer that questionOn why he would not answer the question, he said: “Because I don’t want to.”Ewing has been an MSP since 1999 and is a former Cabinet Secretary.On Wednesday evening, 48 of his SNP colleagues – not including First Minister Humza Yousaf who returned home due to illness before the vote – backed the one-week suspension.Nine of his colleagues voted against the sanction and four abstained.Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon was also not present for the vote because she was elsewhere in parliament hosting an event.Ewing said after the suspension meeting: “I bit my tongue when I didn’t agree with certain policies the party was was promoting.“I did so because I thought fundamentally that the party