Rattling Jail Keys Never calculate without the Scots sense of justice Alex Salmond’s niece has accused his former party of trying to remove the ex-first minister from “SNP history”. Christina Hendry announced last week she would stand in her uncle’s former Holyrood seat as an Alba candidate for the Banffshire and Buchan Coast constituency. She vowed to continue the work left by Salmond as she hit out at her uncle’s mentee successor Nicola Sturgeon. Tributes were made to the former SNP leader from across the political spectrum, with his former protégé Sturgeon describing Salmond as an “incredibly significant figure” in her life. ​She added: “I felt a lot of frustration because there’s been people saying things about him after he died, but where were they in the past few years? They didn’t publicly support him in the last few years. “The SNP tried to distance themselves from him. They tried to remove him from SNP history.” In August 2018, Mr Salmond resigned from the SNP in the face of the false allegations made during his time as first minister. He strongly denied the claims and successfully took legal action against the Scottish Government for its handling of the investigations into him. Mr Salmond, who later founded the Alba Party, was awarded more than £500,000 as a result. “There’s so many people who are only in the jobs they’re in because of the hard work and sheer determination that my uncle had. My family are very much similar to Uncle Alex and will keep going when we know we need to”. The Holyrood hopeful described the allegations against Mr Salmond as a “really, really hard time” for her family. Announcing her Alba bid, she said Mr Salmond would be proud – particularly after he gave her a copy of his 2021 book 'The Dream Shall Never Die' with the inscription: “Give Nicola a year or two, then take over.” New reports suggest wealthy backers of Mr Salmond will continue a court case against the Scottish Government. The former first minister alleged that elements within Holyrood colluded to ruin his reputation with sexual misconduct allegations due to fears he was likely to return to frontline politics. He lodged a petition at Edinburgh’s Court of Session in 2023 claiming damages and loss of earnings. Salmond accusing the Scottish Government of misfeasance, which is when a public servant or public body knowingly or willingly acts to cause loss or harm to a third party, in its handling of allegations against him. The case is likely to continue with the backing of some of Mr Salmond’s wealthy friends. His widow, Moira, will have the legal authority to instruct lawyers to continue with the case if she wishes to do so. The case has been frozen until May 12 to allow her to become to executor of Mr Salmond’s estate. "It had looked like the government was hoping Alex would run out of money when he was alive and they would be able to outspend him with public funds." Kenny MacAskill, acting leader of the Alba Party said: “There is a legal process to go through and ultimately Moira will be in control of that, but there is no doubt that the Scottish Government are on the ropes with this and that the family are very keen to keep things going.”