Keith Brown has suggested that the SNP could work with Alex Salmond’s Alba in a new “convention” of MSPs, MPs and councillors who back a second independence referendum.

The offer of an olive branch to the former first minister’s party could prove controversial with some of Mr Brown’s colleagues.

Earlier this year, the veteran MP, Pete Wishart said there was “simply no way the SNP could ever give any concession to the unelectable Alba Party.”

“For good reason, they have never won an election to anything and if we were to even think of entertaining them they would quickly bring us down to their level,” he added.

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Although they have performed dismally in elections since their creation in 2021, recent polls have suggested Alba could win as many as four MSPs at the 2026 Holyrood election.

Mr Salmond has confirmed that he intends to stand for the party at the 2026 Holyrood election.

In Mr Brown’s speech to the SNP members gathered in Edinburgh’s conference centre, he addressed the party’s disaster at the general election, where they lost a third of their vote and went from 48 MPs to just nine.

He said it was “clear that we did not convince enough people that independence was their immediate priority which would improve their lives.”

Mr Brown insisted the campaign for independence was not over. “It has moved on to its next phase,” he added.

He told delegates they had suffered under the same first-past-the-post voting system which had delivered "jackpot" wins in the past.

He said: "Our opponents would have you believe that the SNP and the cause of independence are over. They suggest it's time to pack up and go home.

“The same people who claimed that winning 56 or 48 out of 59 Westminster seats, or securing 63 or 64 seats in Holyrood, weren’t sufficient mandates now tell us that a party not achieving a majority of seats must accept defeat and abandon hope.

"These are rules that seem to apply only to us - does anyone remember these voices calling for Labour to abandon their cause, if they still have one, when they won only one out of 59 seats, or for the Tories to give up when they won zero seats in Scotland? It’s absurd."

Mr Brown said a vote for the SNP in 2026 would mean “endorsing the right of our party to advocate for independence.”

He added; “It means backing a ‘Convention’ of all democratically elected representatives—in the Scottish Parliament, at Westminster, in our Councils—who support Scotland’s right to choose.

“This Convention will unite with every willing element of civic Scotland, committed to the principle of self-determination.

“We need to demonstrate this support through every democratic means available, and we will activate the growing international backing for Scotland’s right to self-determination.

“Through this Convention, we will seize every opportunity to advance the mandate provided by the majority of representatives elected to Scotland’s national parliament.”

Alba’s General Secretary Chris McEleny said the SNP had “embraced” his party’s strategy “to make the next Holyrood election the independence election.”

He added: “Alba Party want to see the Holyrood election used to seek a mandate for independence.

“This twinned with the referendum proposed by Ash Regan on independence powers for the Scottish Parliament would give us an democratic double lock for independence.

“If the SNP are serious about their desire to work with Alba Party in response the General Election result they could start this immediately by including Ash Regan and Alba Party’s priorities in their programme for government.”