Gail Sheridan is bidding to become an MSP at the Scottish parliamentary elections in May as a candidate for the ALBA party and hopes to be elected alongside her husband Tommy
The wife of left wing political firebrand Tommy Sheridan is to stand for election to the Scottish Parliament this year alongside her husband.
The Daily Record can reveal that Gail Sheridan will feature on the ALBA List of candidates for the Glasgow Region in May’s Holyrood election joining husband Tommy in a joint bid to become MSP’s.
Gail was approached to stand after one of the Glasgow candidates had to withdraw due to work commitments. ALBA must field a minimum of four candidates in all the eight regional list areas to qualify for party political broadcasts on BBC and STV.
Gail Sheridan yesterday confirmed her candidacy to the Daily Record.
She said:”I was a founder member of ALBA in 2021, so when I was asked to help the party by standing as a candidate in Glasgow I agreed.
“I knew former leader of the party Alex Salmond well from my cabin crew days on the BA shuttle flights to and from London. “He was always supportive of our trade union struggles with the company over wages and working conditions, so I was happy to join his ALBA Party.”
Gail added:”I have supported Scottish independence all my adult life. In truth I was reluctant about supporting Tommy getting back involved in politics, but it is in his blood.
“He gets things done and shakes things up. He fought Thatcher’s poll tax and managed to get warrant sales abolished and free and healthy school meals on the political table in the first parliament.
“I know he will fight hard for Glasgow and Scotland’s independence”.
Gail and Tommy have known each other since they met at school in Glasgow in the late 1970’s
However, they didn’t become romantically involved until 1992 and were married in 2000.
Last week we revealed how Tommy was planning a sensational return to the Scottish Parliament – following a break of almost 20 years – after he secured the party’s top spot on the Glasgow region list.
Reacting to his wife Gail joining the list of candidates Sheridan told the Record:
“I am very proud of Gail for stepping up to the plate.
“She is an extremely capable woman with decades of trade union experience, independence campaigning and community council and school parent council involvement.
“She is a formidable organiser.
“We already had a very good candidate, so Gail is an ideal replacement.
“Gail was a supporter of Scottish independence before me, so she is well suited to ALBA’s determination to make independence a priority in the next parliament. “With Gail backing me and the party I know we have a chance of winning”
ALBA was launched by the late Alex Salmond shortly before the last Holyrood election in 2021 but it has so far failed to elect any MSPs.
The party has struggled since Salmond’s death in 2024 and lost its only MSP last year when Ash Regan – who had defected from the SNP – cancelled her membership.
The Record previously revealed how Sheridan was elected to Alba’s governing body last year.
He was one of the best known politicians in Scotland in the early years of devolution after he was first elected as an MSP for the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) in 1999.
He quit as leader in 2004 and later endured a bitter fall-out with his SSP colleagues over his decision to sue the News of the World for defamation after it accused him of an affair and visiting a swingers’ club in Manchester.
Sheridan won his case in 2006 but he was charged with perjury in 2007 and later jailed for three years following a lengthy trial in 2010.
After forming Solidarity, he appeared on Celebrity Big Brother and fronted a show for Russia backed channel Sputnik UK. He was declared bankrupt in 2022 over an £82,000 legal bill.