Scotland Beyond the SNP: Speaking with Alliance to Liberate Scotland
The forthcoming Scottish election is unlikely to be decided by smaller pro-independence formations. Yet some of the more interesting currents in Scottish politics are found outside the familiar SNP-dominated landscape. The Alliance to Liberate Scotland and Sovereignty point to frustration within the independence movement not always captured by media focus on the SNP, the Greens or the wider ‘progressive’ bloc.
The Alliance to Liberate Scotland presents itself as deliberately narrow, not a conventional party competing to impose a full programme on voters. Hazel Lyon, the leader of AtLS, told The Burkean that the Alliance is standing in the 2026 Holyrood election as a “single-policy umbrella for anyone, party or independent who wants to put independence ahead of internal rivalries.” Its focus is the regional list vote, where it argues that too many pro-independence second preferences are effectively wasted or end up helping unionist parties. “We’re not here to compete with other indy parties,” Lyon said. “We’re here to complete them.”
This is a tactical argument more than a doctrinal one. AtLS exists to gather parties and independents who may disagree on other questions but agree that independence should be placed first. “The Alliance is a distinct vehicle because we wanted to focus entirely on the single policy of self-determination,” Lyon told The Burkean, describing it as “a formal umbrella that any party or independent can stand under without abandoning their other principles/policies.” In that sense, AtLS is best understood not as a full ideological alternative to the SNP, but as an electoral instrument aimed at maximising the independence vote.
Sovereignty, by contrast, is more explicitly political in the broader sense. It is a member of AtLS, but has its own identity and developing policy platform. Nugent told The Burkean: “Sovereignty is for Scottish independence, out of the UK. If a majority of Scottish voters vote for an independence supporting party, then Sovereignty believes Scotland should declare UDI.” He also drew a sharp distinction with the SNP’s Europeanism: “Sovereignty cannot understand the logic of becoming independent, then handing over control to the EU.”
That marks one of the clearest distinctions between Sovereignty and the SNP. The SNP’s position has long been tied to “independence in Europe”, while Sovereignty’s is more direct: Scotland should be outside Westminster’s rule, outside the EU and outside NATO, with real independence understood as requiring distance from supranational political structures. It is closer in spirit to those who see the national question as one of sovereignty itself rather than administrative rearrangement.
Sovereignty also gives this current a more socially conservative expression. Nugent told The Burkean: “We see ourselves as being socially conservative, but being pragmatic on other issues.” He added that, when asked to place the party overall, he has said that “Sovereignty is in the centre.” Nugent also raised accusations that the party is “far right” or anti-immigration, rejecting them and noting that Sovereignty “does not have an immigration policy as yet.” As a relatively new organisation, it is still developing its platform. As he put it, “we have a lot of policy making to do in the next number of years.”
The difference between AtLS and Sovereignty is not necessarily a weakness. It may be the point. AtLS seeks to keep the independence demand as broad and simple as possible: independence, nothing else. Sovereignty shows that within that broader demand there are voters and activists who reject the SNP’s gradualism, liberalism and Europeanism, but who remain firmly committed to Scottish independence.
Whether this current can make a serious electoral impact remains to be seen. But it is politically significant all the same. It demonstrates that the Scottish independence movement is not ideologically uniform and that opposition to the British state does not necessarily lead towards the SNP, the Greens or pro-EU progressive politics. There are other voices emerging in Scotland which are more sceptical of gradualism, with Sovereignty in particular bringing a more critical view of supranational institutions such as NATO and the EU. They also carry a stronger insistence that independence should mean more than transferring authority from Westminster to supranational structures.
