Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond (; born 31 December 1954) is a Scottish politician and economist who served as
First Minister of Scotland from
2007 to 2014. A prominent figure on the
Scottish nationalist movement, he has served as
leader of the Alba Party since 2021. Salmond was
leader of the Scottish National Party
The Leader of the Scottish National Party is the head of the SNP. The incumbent is Nicola Sturgeon who was elected unopposed in November 2014, succeeding Alex Salmond as party leader and First Minister of Scotland.
History
The post was offi ...
(SNP), on two occasions, from
1990
File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...
to 2000 and from
2004 to 2014. He served as the
party's depute leader from 1987 to 1990.
A graduate of the
University of St Andrews
(Aien aristeuein)
, motto_lang = grc
, mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best
, established =
, type = Public research university
Ancient university
, endowment ...
, he worked as an
economist
An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics.
The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...
in the
Scottish Office
The Scottish Office was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom from 1885 until 1999, exercising a wide range of government functions in relation to Scotland under the control of the Secretary of State for Scotland. Following the es ...
, and later, the
Royal Bank of Scotland. He was elected to the
British House of Commons in
1987
File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...
, serving as the
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
(MP) for
Banff and Buchan
Banff and Buchan is a committee area of the Aberdeenshire Council, Scotland.
It has a population of 35,742 (2001 Census). Fishing and agriculture are important industries, together with associated processing and service activity.
Banff and Bucha ...
from 1987 to 2010. In 1990, he successfully defeated
Margaret Ewing
Margaret Anne Ewing (''née'' McAdam, formerly Bain; 1 September 1945 – 21 March 2006) was a Scottish teacher, journalist and politician. She served as a Scottish National Party (SNP) Member of Parliament for East Dunbartonshire from 1974 t ...
in the
SNP leadership contest. Salmond led the party through the
first election to the Scottish Parliament in 1999, where the SNP emerged as the second largest party, with Salmond as the
Leader of the Opposition. He was elected as the
Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for
Banff and Buchan
Banff and Buchan is a committee area of the Aberdeenshire Council, Scotland.
It has a population of 35,742 (2001 Census). Fishing and agriculture are important industries, together with associated processing and service activity.
Banff and Bucha ...
in that year's election. He
resigned as leader in 2000 and
stood down as an MSP the following year, when he was appointed
leader of the SNP's Westminster group. Salmond was re-elected as leader of the SNP in the
2004 leadership contest, after running on a joint ticket with
Nicola Sturgeon. She led the SNP at Holyrood until Salmond was elected to the
Scottish Parliament in 2007 for the
Gordon
Gordon may refer to:
People
* Gordon (given name), a masculine given name, including list of persons and fictional characters
* Gordon (surname), the surname
* Gordon (slave), escaped to a Union Army camp during the U.S. Civil War
* Clan Gordon, ...
(later
Aberdeenshire East). The SNP placed first, ahead of the
governing
Governance is the process of interactions through the laws, norms, power or language of an organized society over a social system ( family, tribe, formal or informal organization, a territory or across territories). It is done by the gove ...
Labour Party, in the
2007 election with Salmond securing a
confidence and supply
In a parliamentary democracy based on the Westminster system, confidence and supply are required for a ruling cabinet to retain power in the lower house.
A confidence-and-supply agreement is one whereby a party or independent members of par ...
support from the
Scottish Greens
The Scottish Greens (also known as the Scottish Green Party; gd, Pàrtaidh Uaine na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Green Pairtie) are a green political party in Scotland. The party has seven MSPs in the Scottish Parliament as of May 2021. As of the 2 ...
, resulting in Salmond's appointment as first minister.
Salmond led an
SNP minority government in his first term. His government passed landmark legislation including the
abolishment of university tuition fees, the
scrapping of prescription charges and commitment to
renewable energy. Salmond was the
first nationalist first minister and in his first term he failed to obtain support for a
referendum on Scottish independence
A referendum on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom was held in Scotland on 18 September 2014. The referendum question was, "Should Scotland be an independent country?", which voters answered with "Yes" or "No". The "No" side w ...
due to insufficient support. At the
2011 Scottish Parliament election
The 2011 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2011 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament.
The election delivered the first majority government since the opening of Holyrood, a remarkable feat as the Additional M ...
the SNP won with an overall majority, a feat previously thought almost impossible under the
additional member system used in elections for the Scottish Parliament. As of 2021, this is the only election in which a party has won a majority in the Scottish Parliament. Salmond used this mandate to hold a referendum, which led to the signing of the Edinburgh Agreement and the 2014 referendum. The
Yes Scotland campaign
Yes Scotland was the organisation representing the parties, organisations, and individuals campaigning for a ''Yes'' vote in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. It was launched on 25 May 2012 and dissolved in late 2014 after Scotland vote ...
, which his
deputy Nicola Sturgeon led, lost the campaign as a majority of Scots voted against leaving the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
. As a result, Salmond resigned and was succeeded by Sturgeon.
Returning to Westminster, Salmond was elected MP for
Gordon
Gordon may refer to:
People
* Gordon (given name), a masculine given name, including list of persons and fictional characters
* Gordon (surname), the surname
* Gordon (slave), escaped to a Union Army camp during the U.S. Civil War
* Clan Gordon, ...
in the
2015 general election. He was the SNP International Affairs and Europe spokesperson from 2015 to 2017. He left the House of Commons at the
2017 general election after losing his seat to the
Scottish Conservative Party
The Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party ( gd, Pàrtaidh Tòraidheach na h-Alba, sco, Scots Tory an Unionist Pairty), often known simply as the Scottish Conservatives and colloquially as the Scottish Tories, is a centre-right political par ...
candidate
Colin Clark.
In August 2018, Salmond resigned from the party to fight allegations of sexual misconduct which he denied.
In January 2019, he was charged with 14 offences, including attempted rape and sexual assault, but was compensated £500,000 by the
Scottish Government in August 2019 and later acquitted of all charges after trial in March 2020. In 2021, he criticised Sturgeon for her government's flawed investigations into these allegations which
resulted in a political scandal. Salmond later was announced as the leader of a new pro-independence party, the Alba Party. The party failed to gain any seats in the
2021 national
The 2021 BOOST National was held November 2 to 7 at the Chestermere Recreation Centre in Chestermere, Alberta. It was the second Grand Slam and second major of the 2021–22 curling season.
Qualification
The top 16 ranked men's and women's t ...
and
2022 local elections.
Early life
Early years and family background
Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond was born in his parents' home at 101 Preston Road,
Linlithgow
Linlithgow (; gd, Gleann Iucha, sco, Lithgae) is a town in West Lothian, Scotland. It was historically West Lothian's county town, reflected in the county's historical name of Linlithgowshire. An ancient town, it lies in the Central Belt on a ...
,
West Lothian, Scotland, on 31 December 1954.
He is the second of four children born to Robert Fyfe Findlay Salmond (1921–2017), and Mary Stewart Salmond (
née Milne; 1922–2003), both of whom were
civil servants.
Robert Salmond, who served in the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
during the Second World War, had originally worked as an electrician, and his family had been resident in Linlithgow since the mid-18th century. Salmond's grandmother, Abigail Ireland, married Alexander Salmond, one of six children to Robert Dobie Salmond and Margaret Elms, the daughter of Margaret Duncan and Henry Elms, a native of
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
Salmond's middle names come from his family's tradition of naming their children after the local
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland.
The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Reformation of 1560, when it split from the Catholic Church ...
minister, in this case Gilbert Elliot Anderson of St Ninian's Craigmailen Parish Church in Linlithgow. He remains a member of the Church of Scotland.
From a young age, Salmond suffered very bad
asthma
Asthma is a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, co ...
.
His parents were loving and caring and although he did not grow up poor, "money was tight" and the importance of education was emphasised in the family.
Salmond was a skinny child, often referred to by his father as a "skink", as in Cullen Skink.
Education
Salmond attended the local
Linlithgow Academy
Linlithgow Academy is a secondary school in Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland. The original academy was built in 1900 to a design by James Graham Fairley and replaced an earlier kirk institution, known as "Sang Schule".
History
The present ...
from 1966 to 1972. He studied at Edinburgh College of Commerce from 1972 to 1973, gaining an HNC in Business Studies, and was then accepted by the
University of St Andrews
(Aien aristeuein)
, motto_lang = grc
, mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best
, established =
, type = Public research university
Ancient university
, endowment ...
, where he studied Economics and Medieval History. During his time at St Andrews, Salmond lived in
Andrew Melville Hall
Andrew Melville Hall is a student hall of residence of the University of St Andrews located in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. It was built in 1967 in the brutalist style, and it accommodates approximately 275 students.
History
Designed in the Ne ...
. He was elected as vice-president (education) of the
students' representative council in 1977 and was also nominated to join St Andrews Community Council that year.
[Torrance, ''Salmond: Against The Odds'', p. 29] Salmond graduated with a 2:2
Joint Honours MA in Economics and Medieval History in May 1978.
Early career
In 1978, he entered the
Government Economic Service as an assistant economist in the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland, part of the now defunct
Scottish Office
The Scottish Office was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom from 1885 until 1999, exercising a wide range of government functions in relation to Scotland under the control of the Secretary of State for Scotland. Following the es ...
. Two years later he joined the staff of the
Royal Bank of Scotland, where he worked for seven years, initially as an assistant economist. In 1982 he was appointed oil economist, and from 1984 he worked as a bank economist as well as continuing to hold the position of oil economist.
While with the Royal Bank, he wrote and broadcast extensively for both domestic and international outlets. He also contributed regularly to oil and energy conferences. In 1983, Salmond created a "Royal Bank/BBC oil index" that is still used.
Early political years
Salmond became active in the SNP when he joined the
Federation of Student Nationalists
SNP Students (also known as the Federation of Student Nationalists) is the student wing of the Scottish National Party (SNP), representing students in Scottish higher education. It was formed in 1961 when various student organisations supportiv ...
at the University of St Andrews in 1973. His conversion is generally credited to his then girlfriend, Debbie Horton, an English student from London, who was secretary of the St Andrews University Labour club. After an argument in December 1973, she told him: "If you feel like that, go and join the bloody SNP". The next day Salmond did.
The following day he and a friend attended the sparsely populated AGM of the university branch of the Federation of Student Nationalists. Being the only two fully paid-up members of the SNP at the university, they were duly elected president and treasurer.
Although a
left-wing
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
er at the time he joined, Salmond had considerable doubts as to whether or not the
Labour Government would legislate for a
devolved
Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization. Devolved territories ...
Scottish Assembly.
Salmond started his political life as a committed left-winger inside the SNP and was a leading member of the socialist republican organisation within it, the
79 Group
The 79 Group was a faction within the Scottish National Party (SNP), named after its year of formation, 1979. The group sought to persuade the SNP to take an active left-wing stance, arguing that it would win more support, and were highly critic ...
. He was, along with other group leaders, suspended from membership of the SNP when the 79 Group was banned within the larger party. In 1981, he married Moira French McGlashan, then a senior civil servant with the
Scottish Office
The Scottish Office was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom from 1885 until 1999, exercising a wide range of government functions in relation to Scotland under the control of the Secretary of State for Scotland. Following the es ...
.
Following the SNP's National Council narrowly voting to uphold the expulsion, Salmond and the others were allowed back into the party a month later, and in 1985 he was elected as the SNP's Vice Convener for Publicity. In 1987 he stood for Parliament in
Banff and Buchan
Banff and Buchan is a committee area of the Aberdeenshire Council, Scotland.
It has a population of 35,742 (2001 Census). Fishing and agriculture are important industries, together with associated processing and service activity.
Banff and Bucha ...
and defeated the incumbent Conservative MP,
Albert McQuarrie
Sir Albert McQuarrie (1 January 1918 – 13 January 2016) was a British Conservative politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1979 to 1987.
Early life
Albert McQuarrie was born on 1 January 1918 in Greenock, Inverclyde. McQuar ...
. Later that year Salmond became Senior Vice Convener (Depute Leader) of the SNP. He was at this time still viewed as being firmly on the left of the party and had become a key ally of
Jim Sillars
James Sillars (born 4 October 1937) is a Scottish politician and campaigner for Scottish independence. Sillars served as a Labour Party MP for South Ayrshire from 1970 to 1976. He founded and led the pro- Scottish Home Rule Scottish Labour Par ...
, who joined him in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
when he won a
by-election
A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...
for the seat of
Glasgow Govan in 1988. Salmond served as a member of the
House of Commons Energy Select committee from 1987 to 1992.
Leadership of the Scottish National Party
First Tenure: 1990–2000
When
Gordon Wilson stood down as SNP leader in 1990, Salmond decided to contest the leadership. His only opponent was
Margaret Ewing
Margaret Anne Ewing (''née'' McAdam, formerly Bain; 1 September 1945 – 21 March 2006) was a Scottish teacher, journalist and politician. She served as a Scottish National Party (SNP) Member of Parliament for East Dunbartonshire from 1974 t ...
, whom Sillars decided to support. This caused considerable consternation amongst the SNP left as the two main left leaders were opposing each other in the contest. Salmond went on to win the leadership election by 486 votes to Ewing's 146.
His first test as leader was the
general election in 1992, with the SNP having high hopes of making an electoral breakthrough. Whilst considerably increasing its share of the vote, it failed to win a large number of seats. Sillars lost his, causing him to describe the Scottish people as '90-minute patriots'. This comment ended the political friendship between Salmond and Sillars, and Sillars would soon become a vocal critic of Salmond's style of leadership.
The SNP increased its number of MPs from four to six in the
1997 general election, which saw a
landslide victory for the Labour Party. After election, Labour
legislated for a devolved Scottish parliament in Edinburgh. Although still committed to a fully independent Scotland, Salmond signed the SNP up to supporting the campaign for devolution, and, along with Scottish Labour leader
Donald Dewar
Donald Campbell Dewar (21 August 1937 – 11 October 2000) was a Scottish politician who served as the inaugural First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland from 1999 until his death in 2000. He previously served as ...
and Scottish Liberal Democrat leader
Jim Wallace
James Robert Wallace, Baron Wallace of Tankerness, (born 25 August 1954) is a Scottish politician serving as a Liberal Democrat life peer in the British House of Lords since 2007 and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland ...
, played an active part in securing the victory for devolution in the
Scotland referendum of 1997. Many hardline
fundamentalists in the SNP objected to committing the party to devolution, as it was short of full political Scottish independence.
Salmond's first spell as leader was characterised by a moderation of his earlier left-wing views and by his firmly placing the SNP into a
gradualist
Gradualism, from the Latin ''gradus'' ("step"), is a hypothesis, a theory or a tenet assuming that change comes about gradually or that variation is gradual in nature and happens over time as opposed to in large steps. Uniformitarianism, incrementa ...
, but still pro-independence, strategy. Salmond was one of the few politicians in the UK to oppose the
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
bombing of
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...
in 1999. He was opposed to the conflict because it was not authorised by a
United Nations Security Council
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...
resolution
Resolution(s) may refer to:
Common meanings
* Resolution (debate), the statement which is debated in policy debate
* Resolution (law), a written motion adopted by a deliberative body
* New Year's resolution, a commitment that an individual mak ...
, which was a
controversial subject at the time. Despite this, Salmond was heavily criticised in the media for describing
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
's decision to intervene militarily as an "unpardonable folly".
Several years as party leader earned Salmond an unusually high profile for an SNP politician in the London-based media. In 1998, Salmond won the Spectator Award for Political Strategist of the Year. Following an appearance on the entertainment programme ''
Call My Bluff
''Call My Bluff'' is a British panel game show based on the short-lived US version of the same name. It was originally hosted by Robin Ray and later, most notably, by Robert Robinson. Its most prominent panellist was Frank Muir.
Format
The g ...
'', Salmond used one of the 'bluff' cards that are used as props in the show in the run-up to the first elections to the Scottish Parliament. To counter his frustration at having to sit in silence through what he claimed was an inappropriately political speech by Tony Blair at a charity lunch, he held up the bluff card as the Prime Minister began querying Scotland's economic prospects should independence occur. Throughout his time in politics, Salmond has maintained his interest in
horse racing, writing a weekly column for ''
The Scotsman
''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its pare ...
'' and appearing a number of times on
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
's ''
The Morning Line''. During the election campaign, Salmond was photographed feeding a young supporter a
Solero ice cream during an event at
Stirling University, creating a photograph that would become iconic.
Resignation as leader
Salmond was elected to the Scottish Parliament in 1999 and was one of its highest-profile members as
Leader of the Opposition. He stood down as SNP leader in 2000, facing internal criticism after a series of high-profile fall-outs with party members, and was replaced by his preferred successor
John Swinney, who defeated
Alex Neil for the post. He resigned from the Scottish Parliament on 14 May 2001 to lead the SNP group in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
.
During the prolonged parliamentary debates in the run-up to the
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...
he voiced strong opposition to the UK's participation. In the aftermath of the war, he lent support to the attempt of
Adam Price, a
Plaid Cymru
Plaid Cymru ( ; ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left to left-wing, Welsh nationalist political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from the United Kingdom.
Plaid wa ...
MP, to
impeach Tony Blair over the Iraq issue. Salmond has gone further than many anti-war politicians in claiming that Blair's
statements
Statement or statements may refer to: Common uses
*Statement (computer science), the smallest standalone element of an imperative programming language
*Statement (logic), declarative sentence that is either true or false
*Statement, a declarative ...
on the presence of
weapons of mass destruction
A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to numerous individuals or cause great damage to artificial structures (e.g., buildings), natu ...
in
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
were consciously intended to deceive the public.
He has also claimed that Blair had made a pact with
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
"to go to war come what may".
[Salmond back with threat to impeach PM](_blank)
, ''The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'', 25 September 2004.
Subsequent return
![A National Conversation launch](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/A_National_Conversation_launch.jpg)
After the
June 2004 European Parliament elections, which were perceived as a "disaster" for the SNP, pressure mounted on Swinney to resign as leader. Swinney announced his resignation on 22 June 2004 to become Convener of the Scottish Parliament's European and External Relations Committee.
On 15 July 2004, Salmond said that he would be a candidate in the forthcoming election for the leadership of the SNP.
This came as a surprise because he had previously declared that he would definitely not be a leadership candidate.
In the
postal ballot
An absentee ballot is a vote cast by someone who is unable or unwilling to attend the official polling station to which the voter is normally allocated. Methods include voting at a different location, postal voting, proxy voting and online vot ...
of all members he went on to receive over 75% of the votes cast, placing him well ahead of his nearest rival
Roseanna Cunningham
Roseanna Cunningham (born 27 July 1951) is a retired Scottish National Party (SNP) politician who served as Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform from 2016 to 2021. She was previously Cabinet Secretary for Fair Wor ...
. As he was not an MSP at the time, his depute,
Nicola Sturgeon, took over as Leader of the SNP group and the main opposition leader at Holyrood.
Although he was re-elected in the
2005 general election, he made clear his intention to return to the Scottish Parliament at the
2007 Scottish parliamentary election in an attempt to win power for the first time.
2007 Scottish Parliament election
Salmond led the Scottish National Party through the
2007 election to the
3rd Scottish Parliament
This is a list of Member of the Scottish Parliament, members (MSPs) returned to the third Scottish Parliament at the 2007 Scottish Parliament election. Of the 129 Member of the Scottish Parliament, MSPs, 73 were elected from first past the post ...
. In the election, Salmond stood as a candidate for the
Gordon
Gordon may refer to:
People
* Gordon (given name), a masculine given name, including list of persons and fictional characters
* Gordon (surname), the surname
* Gordon (slave), escaped to a Union Army camp during the U.S. Civil War
* Clan Gordon, ...
constituency, which had been represented since 1999 by the Liberal Democrat
Nora Radcliffe
Nora Radcliffe (born 4 March 1946, Aberdeen) is a former Scottish Liberal Democrat politician. She was the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Gordon from 1999 to 2007. During her two terms in the Scottish Parliament she held various p ...
. Salmond won the seat with 41% of the vote, and a majority of 2,062, returning to the Scottish Parliament after six years' absence. In the election the SNP emerged as the largest party, winning 47 seats to Labour's 46.
Having won more seats than any other party in the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, the SNP initially approached the
Scottish Liberal Democrats
The Scottish Liberal Democrats ( gd, Pàrtaidh Libearal Deamocratach na h-Alba, sco, Scots Leeberal Democrats) is a liberal, federalist political party in Scotland, a part of the United Kingdom Liberal Democrats. The party currently holds 4 o ...
to form a coalition, but they declined to take part in negotiations. This left the SNP without any possibility to form a coalition with an overall majority. Ultimately, the
Scottish Green Party
The Scottish Greens (also known as the Scottish Green Party; gd, Pàrtaidh Uaine na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Green Pairtie) are a green political party in Scotland. The party has seven MSPs in the Scottish Parliament as of May 2021. As of the 20 ...
agreed to vote in an SNP
minority government in return for concessions on climate policy and naming a Green to chair a committee.
First Minister of Scotland
First term: 2007–2011
On 16 May 2007, with the support of the Greens, Salmond was elected by the Parliament to succeed
Jack McConnell
Jack Wilson McConnell, Baron McConnell of Glenscorrodale, (born 30 June 1960) is a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland from 2001 to 2007. McConnell served as the Minister ...
as
First Minister of Scotland.
The following day he received the
Royal Warrant from the
Queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
and was officially sworn into office at the
Court of Session in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
. Under section 45(7) of the Scotland Act 1998 he became
Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland
The Great Seal of Scotland ( gd, Seala Mòr na h-Alba) is a principal national symbol of Scotland that allows the monarch to authorise official documents without having to sign each document individually. Wax is melted in a metal mould or matrix ...
at the same time. He was appointed to the
British Privy Council
The Privy Council (PC), officially His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises senior politicians who are current or former members of ei ...
four weeks later. Salmond became the first
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...
politician to hold the office of First Minister. He appointed Sturgeon as his
Deputy First Minister.
Entering government
![Queen Elizabeth and Alex Salmond](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Queen_Elizabeth_and_Alex_Salmond.jpg)
Salmond reduced the size of the
Cabinet from nine members to six, and said he would seek to govern on a "policy by policy" basis.
In order to concentrate on his new role as First Minister, Salmond stood down as the SNP group leader at Westminster and was replaced by
Angus Robertson. ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' reported in November 2007 that Salmond believed Scotland would be independent within "the next decade".
2007 Glasgow Airport attacks
Salmond had been First Minister for just over a month when a vehicle rammed the front entrance of the main terminal building at
Glasgow Airport
gd, Port-adhair Eadar-nàiseanta Ghlaschu
, image = Glasgow Airport logo.svg
, image-width = 200
, image2 = GlasgowAirportFromAir.jpg
, image2-width = 250
, IATA = GLA
, ICAO = EGPF
, type = Public
, owner = AGS Airports
, hub =
*eas ...
on 30 June 2007, the first terrorist attack in Scotland since the
Lockerbie bombing
Pan Am Flight 103 was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City. The transatlantic leg of the route was operated by ''Clipper Maid of the Seas'', a Boe ...
incident in December 1988.
In a statement addressing the attacks in Glasgow, Salmond stated "terrorist acts are the work of individuals not communities and the arrival of terror on our soil must not result in racist attacks on ethnic minorities whose only crime is to share the same religion and colour as the bombers. It is to be hoped that yesterday's attack is an isolated incident, but the reality is that we will have to deal with more in the future. We must not allow terrorists to stop us from going about our lives as we always have – to do so would be to hand a victory to the men of terror."
Salmond issued a statement regarding the attacks in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
, calling for "the need for vigilance and unity against the forces of terror and rightly praised the work of the emergency services".
Salmond called a meeting of the
Scottish Government security advisers in
St Andrew's House in Edinburgh, followed by a request from the Prime Minister Gordon Brown for Salmond, the
Cabinet Secretary for Justice Kenny MacAskill
Kenneth Wright MacAskill (born 28 April 1958) is a Scottish politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for East Lothian since 2019. He previously served as Cabinet Secretary for Justice from 2007 to 2014 and was a Member of the Scottish ...
and the
Lord Advocate
His Majesty's Advocate, known as the Lord Advocate ( gd, Morair Tagraidh, sco, Laird Advocat), is the chief legal officer of the Scottish Government and the Crown in Scotland for both civil and criminal matters that fall within the devolved p ...
Elish Angiolini
Lady Elish Frances Angiolini (''née'' McPhilomy; born 24 June 1960"Angiolini, Elish Frances" in ''Who's Who'', A & C Black.) is a Scottish lawyer. She was the Lord Advocate of Scotland from 2006 until 2011, having previously been Solicitor Ge ...
to attend an emergency
COBRA meeting. By the evening of 30 June, Salmond had attended an online conference discussion with the
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern ...
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony B ...
and his governmental cabinet.
Scottish Independence proposals
![First Minister in China (10700806654)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/First_Minister_in_China_%2810700806654%29.jpg)
A
white paper
A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. A white pape ...
for an independence referendum, setting out four possible options ranging from no change to full independence, was published by the Scottish Government on 30 November 2009. A draft bill for public consultation was published on 25 February 2010, setting out a two-question yes/no referendum, proposing further devolution or full independence. The SNP failed to obtain support from other parties and withdrew the draft bill.
Expense controversy
A newspaper investigation in 2009 revealed that Salmond had claimed as expenses from the UK parliament "up to £400 per month in food without producing receipts, even after becoming First Minister and spending little time at Westminster".
In the same year, he stated that he would repay more than £700 that he had received in moving expenses when he left a London flat in 2007.
2010 UK General Election debates
Salmond said it would be "unacceptable" for the SNP to be excluded from the
2010 UK election televised debate and sought "guarantees of inclusion from the broadcasters, given their inescapable duty to ensure fairness and impartiality in election-related coverage in Scotland" in the build up to the
2010 UK general election. The party used the
Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request:
* Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Australian act
* ...
to see whether the BBC could have broken its own rules. Salmond said it was unacceptable to Scotland as well as to the SNP for the broadcasters to exclude the party that formed the Scottish Government and was leading in Westminster election polls. He emphasised that he was not trying to stop any debates from being broadcast. After having failed to change the BBC's decision to not include the SNP in the final British debate, in line with the decision by ITV and Sky News, the SNP mounted a legal challenge to the BBC at the Court of Session in Edinburgh. Despite earlier reassurances by the SNP that it was not trying to stop the broadcast, it sought an 'interim interdict' to prevent the debate being broadcast without the participation of the SNP. The Court of Session dismissed the SNP's complaint, and refused to ban the BBC from broadcasting the third debate in Scotland, on the grounds that the SNP had left the bringing of the case "far too late", had not contested the broadcasting of the first two debates by ITV and Sky Television, and that the third debate would in any case be broadcast by Sky on satellite across Britain, which a Scottish court had no power to block. The judge ordered the SNP to pay the BBC's legal expenses. The SNP's political opponents described the SNP's contesting of the case as a "stunt".
There were Scottish debates dealing with specifically devolved issues which Salmond had accepted the invitation to attend along the other parties within the Scottish Parliament on Sky TV. Salmond declined to attend those held on the BBC and ITV, and Angus Robertson agreed to take his place in the other debates.
Renewable energy
![First Minister meets Chinese Vice-Premier (6460172703)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/First_Minister_meets_Chinese_Vice-Premier_%286460172703%29.jpg)
Salmond in his 2010 New Year message highlighted the importance of
sustainable development and
renewable energy in Scotland and the required increase in powers of the Scottish Parliament needed to help harness Scotland's
green energy
Energy is sustainable if it "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". Most definitions of sustainable energy include considerations of environmental aspects such as greenh ...
potential and therefore take full advantage of the "renewable revolution".
Earlier, in December 2009, he campaigned for climate change legislation at the
UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen to promote Scotland's role in tackling and mitigating
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
. This included signing a Partnership Agreement with the
Maldives
Maldives (, ; dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖެ, translit=Dhivehi Raajje, ), officially the Republic of Maldives ( dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާ, translit=Dhivehi Raajjeyge Jumhooriyyaa, label=none, ), is an archipelag ...
, one of the most exposed countries to the consequences of rising sea levels.
Although energy is mostly a matter reserved to Westminster, administrative devolution of Sections 36 & 37 of the
Electricity Act 1989
The Electricity Act 1989 (c. 29) provided for the privatisation of the electricity supply industry in Great Britain, by replacing the Central Electricity Generating Board in England and Wales and by restructuring the South of Scotland Electricit ...
coupled with fully devolved planning powers enabled the Scottish Government to establish Scotland as a leader in renewable energy developments.
2011 Scottish Parliament election
Before the
2011 Scottish election, the SNP again pledged to hold an independence referendum if it won another term. The Westminster Labour government had initially designed the additional member system to make it impossible for one party to win an outright majority, but the SNP won enough seats from the other parties to take 69 seats, a majority of four. At this election, Salmond was re-elected for Aberdeenshire East, essentially a reconfigured version of Gordon.
Second term: 2011–2014
![The Edinburgh Agreement - Press conference (8090708503)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/The_Edinburgh_Agreement_-_Press_conference_%288090708503%29.jpg)
The SNP's overall majority assured Salmond of another term as First Minister, and he was re-elected unopposed on 18 May 2011. It also gave Salmond the ability to call a referendum on Scottish independence. On 10 January 2012, the Scottish Government announced that they intended to hold the referendum in late 2014.
On 7 November 2012, Salmond surpassed the 2,001-day term of his predecessor, Jack McConnell.
An
agreement Agreement may refer to:
Agreements between people and organizations
* Gentlemen's agreement, not enforceable by law
* Trade agreement, between countries
* Consensus, a decision-making process
* Contract, enforceable in a court of law
** Meeting o ...
was signed on 15 October 2012 by
David Cameron and Salmond which provided a legal framework for the referendum to be held,
and on 21 March 2013 the SNP government announced that the referendum would be held on 18 September 2014.
''
Scotland's Future
''Scotland's Future'' is a government white paper published on 26 November 2013 by the Scottish Government under First Minister Alex Salmond. It lays out the case for Scottish independence and the means through which Scotland would become an in ...
'', a white paper setting out the Scottish Government's vision for an independent Scotland, was published on 26 November 2013.
Spending criticism
![First Minister of Scotland and Mayor of Chicago](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/First_Minister_of_Scotland_and_Mayor_of_Chicago.jpg)
In December 2011, Salmond spent £260 on a pair of
trews
Trews (Truis or Triubhas) are men's clothing for the legs and lower abdomen, a traditional form of tartan trousers from Scottish Highland dress. Trews could be trimmed with leather, usually buckskin, especially on the inner leg to prevent w ...
that he wore to a ball in China.
He refunded the taxpayer more than a year later, after a newspaper had submitted a
freedom of information request
Freedom of information laws allow access by the general public to data held by national governments and, where applicable, by state and local governments. The emergence of freedom of information legislation was a response to increasing dissatisfa ...
.
The sequence in which these events occurred was acknowledged by the Scottish Government after 7 months, during which they initially maintained that they had no record of when Salmond had repaid the money.
In September 2012 he stayed with his wife at a hotel in Chicago while attending a golf tournament; the £3,000 for four nights was paid for by the taxpayer and supported a
VisitScotland
VisitScotland, formerly the Scottish Tourist Board, is a national tourism organisation for Scotland. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government, with offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness, and other ...
delegation
[Johnson, Simon; Riley-Smith, Ben (10 April 2014]
"Revealed: The Five-Star Suite Alex Salmond Enjoyed at the Taxpayers' Expense"
. ''The Daily Telegraph''. that spent £468,580 on the trip as part of preparations for hosting the same tournament two years later. Salmond responded to a freedom of information request for information on his spending six months after receiving it, and referred to it as "ridiculous frippery".
In 2012, Salmond indicated in a television interview that he had sought the advice of his law officers on whether an independent Scotland would be part of the European Union.
The following year, it was revealed that the Scottish Government had spent almost £20,000 to prevent the disclosure of the content of the alleged legal advice, even though no such advice existed.
Salmond has faced scrutiny for his closeness to
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
.
Donald Trump
Salmond was an early supporter of US President
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
's controversial plans for a Trump International golf course in Aberdeenshire. After the plans were rejected by Aberdeenshire council Salmond personally met with Trump Organisation executives in Aberdeen. The next day the decision was made to overrule the council's rejection. The relationship turned fractious when in 2015, the
UK Supreme Court rejected Trump's bid to stop an offshore wind farm being built close to one of his two golf resorts in Scotland. Trump has twice lost bids in the Scottish courts to halt the development, leading Salmond to describe him as a "three times loser", to which Trump called Salmond a "totally irrelevant has-been". Salmond has also said that Trump's impact in Scotland – in particular
Turnberry, the Ayrshire golf resort he bought in 2014 – has had a "damaging impact" on the Scottish economy.
These comments came days after the chief executive of the
Professional Golfer's Association said Trump's comments on the presidential campaign trail were "not a positive thing for golf".
In January 2016, Salmond, prompted by broadcasting colleague
Iain Dale
Iain Campbell Dale (born 15 July 1962) is a British broadcaster, author and political commentator, and a former publisher and book retailer. He has been a blogger since 2002. In 2005, he became the first openly gay Conservative candidate to c ...
, called Trump a "chicken" for refusing to appear on his
LBC
LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadca ...
talk show, which had then been recently launched. Of Trump, he said: "The Donald tries to give this impression that he's totally off the cuff; in fact his media operation controls him and protects him from tough interviews, and when he's had tough interviews he hasn't liked it, that's been pretty obvious".
Edinburgh Agreement
![Signing of the Edinburgh Agreement, 2012](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Signing_of_the_Edinburgh_Agreement%2C_2012.jpg)
An
agreement Agreement may refer to:
Agreements between people and organizations
* Gentlemen's agreement, not enforceable by law
* Trade agreement, between countries
* Consensus, a decision-making process
* Contract, enforceable in a court of law
** Meeting o ...
was signed on 15 October 2012 by
David Cameron and Salmond which provided a legal framework for the referendum to be held,
and on 21 March 2013 the SNP government announced that the referendum would be held on 18 September 2014.
''
Scotland's Future
''Scotland's Future'' is a government white paper published on 26 November 2013 by the Scottish Government under First Minister Alex Salmond. It lays out the case for Scottish independence and the means through which Scotland would become an in ...
'', a white paper setting out the Scottish Government's vision for an independent Scotland, was published on 26 November 2013.
Resignation as First Minister
On 19 September 2014, following the results of the
independence referendum
An independence referendum is a type of referendum in which the residents of a territory decide whether the territory should become an independent sovereign state. An independence referendum that results in a vote for independence does not alwa ...
which confirmed a majority of the Scottish people had voted against independence, Salmond announced that he would be resigning as First Minister in November 2014.
On 15 October,
Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was the only candidate to
stand for the leadership, and formally succeeded Salmond as SNP leader following the party's national conference in
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...
on 14 November.
Salmond submitted his resignation as First Minister to the Scottish Parliament and to the Queen on 18 November, and the formal selection of Sturgeon as his successor by the Scottish Parliament took place the following day.
Post-premiership
Return to Westminster, 2015–2017
On 7 December 2014, Salmond announced that he would stand as the SNP candidate for the
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...
constituency of
Gordon
Gordon may refer to:
People
* Gordon (given name), a masculine given name, including list of persons and fictional characters
* Gordon (surname), the surname
* Gordon (slave), escaped to a Union Army camp during the U.S. Civil War
* Clan Gordon, ...
in the
2015 May election.
[ He indicated that he did not intend to replace Angus Robertson, MP for Moray, as the SNP leader in the ]House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
. Nicola Sturgeon, his successor as SNP leader and First Minister, repeatedly reminded voters at the March 2015 SNP conference that she, not he, was party leader after he gave interviews about his possible role in a hung parliament. After he declared his candidacy, he was described as a "bogeyman
The Bogeyman (; also spelled boogeyman, bogyman, bogieman, boogie monster, boogieman, or boogie woogie) is a type of mythic creature used by adults to frighten children into good behavior. Bogeymen have no specific appearance and conceptions var ...
" (both by Lesley Riddoch
Lesley Anne Riddoch (born February 1960) is a Scottish radio broadcaster, activist and journalist who lives in Fife. During the 1990s, she was a contributing editor of the ''Sunday Herald'' and an assistant editor of ''The Scotsman''. Since 2004, ...
and by himself), and was reportedly "demonised" by "Conservative propaganda" portraying Labour Party leader Ed Miliband
Edward Samuel "Ed" Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero since 2021. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster North since 2005. Miliban ...
"compliantly dancing to Salmond the piper's tune" after the election.
During the election campaign, Salmond recorded in his diary: "The Tory candidate, Colin Clark, cuts an impressive figure but his politics are far too dry for this area. If the constituency were composed entirely of michty fairmers then he might be the ideal candidate. But it isn't and he is not."
Salmond gained the seat of Gordon with 47.7% of the vote replacing the Liberal Democrat's Malcolm Bruce
Malcolm Gray Bruce, Baron Bruce of Bennachie, (born 17 November 1944) is a British Liberal Democrat politician.
He was the Member of Parliament for Gordon from 1983 to 2015 and was the chairman of the International Development Select Commit ...
as the constituency's Westminster MP
. On 13 May 2015, Salmond was appointed as the SNP's foreign affairs spokesman in the House of Commons. He tweeted the party would advocate a "pro Europe", "pro developing world" and "against military adventurism" stance.
Following his return to the Commons he attracted media attention after telling Business Minister Anna Soubry
Anna Mary Soubry (; born 7 December 1956) is a British barrister, journalist and former politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Broxtowe from 2010 to 2019. Known for her support of pro-European policies, she was originally elected ...
during a debate, “Behave yourself, woman." Soubry said Salmond's attitude belonged, “firmly in the 19th century”. However, his then party leader, Nicola Sturgeon, defended the remarks and said, "It was in a boisterous House of Commons debate. The fundamental question, ‘does that language indicate that Alex Salmond is sexist?’ Absolutely not, there's no man I know who is less sexist.”
In the 2017 British general election, Salmond's seat was widely watched as a potential Tory gain amid a nationwide backlash to Nicola Sturgeon's decision to call for a second independence referendum. The Scottish Conservatives had taken the most votes in the area at the 2017 local council elections, prompting party leader Ruth Davidson
Ruth Elizabeth Davidson, Baroness Davidson of Lundin Links (born 10 November 1978), is a Scottish politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party from 2011 to 2019 and Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party in the Scottish ...
to say on a visit to Inverurie that, "We won the local government election in Gordon this week, beating the SNP into second place. It means that in this seat, as in many others, it is a two-horse race between us and the nationalists." In response to Davidson's comments, Salmond riposted, “It's just arrogance, for Ruth Davidson to continue the line of ‘we're going to take this seat, and we're going to take that seat’. Once it doesn't happen, it's very bad news for Ruth Davidson's credibility.”
On election night Salmond lost his seat as member for Gordon
Gordon may refer to:
People
* Gordon (given name), a masculine given name, including list of persons and fictional characters
* Gordon (surname), the surname
* Gordon (slave), escaped to a Union Army camp during the U.S. Civil War
* Clan Gordon, ...
to Colin Clark of the Conservatives
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
, receiving 19,254 votes to the Conservatives' 21,861. This represented a swing of 20.4% away from Salmond, larger than the 14.4% swing to him from the Liberal Democrats which saw him win the seat in the 2015 election. It also marked first time since the 1987 general election that Salmond was not in an elected position in either the British or Scottish parliament.
''The Alex Salmond Show''
On 9 November 2017, the RT channel (formerly known as Russia Today) announced he would host a show called '' The Alex Salmond Show'' on the network. Salmond's successor as Scotland's first minister and SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, said she would have advised against his decision to broadcast for the channel. Salmond was criticised by Scottish politicians from the other parties for a perceived lack of judgement. The first show was broadcast on 16 November 2017; the main interviewee was Carles Puigdemont
Carles Puigdemont i Casamajó (; born 29 December 1962) is a Catalan politician and journalist from Spain. Since 2019 he has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP). A former mayor of Girona, Puigdemont served as President of Catalo ...
, the former president of Catalonia.
In February 2022, Salmond announced that his show on RT has been suspended following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. ...
Sexual misconduct allegations and subsequent investigations
Trial and acquittal
In August 2018, he resigned from the SNP in the face of allegations of sexual misconduct in 2013 while he was First Minister. In a statement he said that he wanted to avoid internal division within the party and intended to apply to rejoin the SNP once he had an opportunity to clear his name.
On 30 August 2018, he launched a crowdfunding appeal to pay for the legal costs of seeking a judicial review
Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incomp ...
into the fairness of the process by which the Scottish Government has handled the allegations. He closed the appeal two days later, on 1 September, after raising £100,000, double the amount he wanted to pay for his legal costs. The government later conceded that its procedures had been flawed and paid more than £500,000 in Salmond's legal expenses. On 8 January 2019, he won his inquiry case against Scottish government, noting, "while I am glad about the victory which has been achieved today, I am sad that it was necessary to take this action." The Scottish government admitted it breached its own guidelines by appointing an investigating officer who had "prior involvement" in the case. Salmond also asked permanent secretary to the Scottish Government, Leslie Evans, to consider her position. Evans stated that the complaints the government had received in January 2018 had not been withdrawn, so the option of re-investigating them remained on the table, once the police probe into the allegations had run its course.
On 24 January 2019, Police Scotland
Police Scotland ( gd, Poileas Alba), officially the Police Service of Scotland (), is the national police force of Scotland. It was formed in 2013, through the merging of eight regional police forces in Scotland, as well as the specialist service ...
arrested Salmond, and he was charged with 14 offences, including two counts of attempted rape, nine of sexual assault, two of indecent assault, and one of breach of the peace. He appeared in court on 21 November and entered a plea of "not guilty". The trial started on 9 March 2020; his defence was led by Gordon Jackson, and the prosecution was led by Alex Prentice.
On 23 March 2020, Salmond was cleared of all charges. A jury found him not guilty of 12 charges, one charge was dropped by prosecutors earlier in the trial while one charge was found not proven
Not proven (, ) is a verdict available to a court of law in Scotland. Under Scots law, a criminal trial may end in one of three verdicts, one of conviction ("guilty") and two of acquittal ("not proven" and "not guilty").The Scottish criminal ju ...
.
In May 2021 ''The Times'' reported that Salmond was writing a book about his trial.
Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints
The Scottish Parliament set up the Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints to investigate how the Government breached its own guidelines in its original investigation into the harassment claims against Salmond, and then lost a judicial review into their actions and had to pay over £500,000 to Salmond for legal expenses. A political row developed over what evidence to this committee Salmond could present. Giving evidence in person in February 2021, Salmond claimed that senior figures in the Scottish Government and the SNP plotted to remove him from public life and to send him to prison. Sturgeon disputed the allegations.
Sturgeon initially told parliament that she had first heard of the complaints against Salmond when he told her of them on 2 April 2018. However, 18 months later, she revised her account, saying she had forgotten about an earlier meeting, on 29 March 2018, in which Salmond's former chief of staff Geoff Aberdein told her about the complaints. Critics have described this as a possible breach of the ministerial code, which states that any minister who deliberately misleads parliament should resign. The 29 March meeting was not recorded: meetings on government business are meant to be recorded, but Sturgeon has said this is because it was an SNP meeting. In his evidence to the committee, Salmond said there was "no doubt" that Sturgeon had broken the ministerial code in not revealing the 29 March meeting sooner and in not recording what was really a meeting about government business. Sturgeon denies any wrongdoing.
Documents and emails published on 2 March 2021 showed that two people supported Salmond's assertion that the meeting was convened as a government, not party, matter. The publication also backed up Salmond's allegation that the identity of one of his accusers had been passed to his former chief of staff, contradicting Sturgeon's statement that "to the very best of my knowledge I do not think that happened". They also confirmed that the government had pursued the legal case against Salmond after being advised by lawyers that it was likely to fail.
''The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' reported that MSPs also heard that staff felt, "shamed because they were expected to tie Salmond's shoelaces, straighten his tie, apply hand sanitiser to him and comb his hair and remove dandruff."
Irish lawyer James Hamilton conducted a separate investigation into whether Sturgeon breached the ministerial code and concluded that she did not; caveating that: "It is for the Scottish parliament to decide whether they were in fact misled."
Alba Party
On 26 March 2021, Salmond announced he had joined and become leader of the Alba Party
The Alba Party is a Scottish nationalist and pro-independence political party in Scotland. The party was founded in February 2021, with Alex Salmond (a former first minister of Scotland) announced as party leader shortly thereafter. Salmond lau ...
, a new pro-independence party, to contest the upcoming 2021 Scottish Parliament Election
The 2021 Scottish Parliament election took place on 6 May 2021, under the provisions of the Scotland Act 1998. All 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament were elected in the sixth election since the parliament was re-established in 1999. The e ...
. While campaigning, he told ''The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' that he did not want to destroy Nicola Sturgeon. "If I wanted to destroy her, that could have been done," he claimed. The party won zero seats but Salmond pledged the party would continue campaigning. He also claimed that the party had established itself as a political force in only six weeks and would remain on the political scene.
Alba also fielded 111 candidates at the 2022 Scottish local elections
The 2022 Scottish local elections were held on 5 May 2022, as part of the 2022 United Kingdom local elections. All 1,226 seats across all 32 Scottish local authorities were up for election and voter turnout was 44.8%.
Compared to the previous ...
, including thirteen who had defected since 2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...
, but none of them won a seat. The following week, Salmond stated that all pro-independence parties needed to work together if Scottish independence was to be achieved. He said that the proposed 2023 independence referendum would need to take place, but if it didn't then there would be huge political change in Scotland in which Alba would play a strong part.
Personal life
Salmond married Moira McGlashan in 1981. Moira was a senior civil servant 17 years his senior, and became his boss when he joined the Scottish Office in the 1970s. They have no children. They closely protect their private lives and live in a converted mill in Strichen
Strichen is a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It sits on the A981, connecting it to New Deer to the southwest and Fraserburgh to the north-northeast, and the B9093, connecting it to New Pitsligo about due west. The village got its name ...
, Aberdeenshire.
Salmond is a member of the Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland.
The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Reformation of 1560, when it split from the Catholic Church ...
and considers himself to be a religious man.
Salmond's main interests outside of work and politics are golf, horse racing, football and reading. He succeeded Robin Cook
Robert Finlayson "Robin" Cook (28 February 19466 August 2005) was a British Labour politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 until his death in 2005 and served in the Cabinet as Foreign Secretary from 1997 until 2001 wh ...
as a racing tipster for Glasgow's ''Herald
A herald, or a herald of arms, is an officer of arms, ranking between pursuivant and king of arms. The title is commonly applied more broadly to all officers of arms.
Heralds were originally messengers sent by monarchs or noblemen to ...
'' newspaper. He supports the Scotland national football team
The Scotland national football team gd, Sgioba Ball-coise Nàiseanta na h-Alba sco, Scotland National Fitbaa Team represents Scotland in men's international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. It competes in the thr ...
and Heart of Midlothian FC, and sometimes attends matches. He takes an interest in Scottish cultural life, as well as watching '' Star Trek'' and listening to country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
.
Honorary degrees and awards
Salmond has been awarded several honorary degree
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...
s in recognition of his political career. These include a doctorate from the University of St Andrews
(Aien aristeuein)
, motto_lang = grc
, mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best
, established =
, type = Public research university
Ancient university
, endowment ...
on 30 November 2007 and he was awarded the degree of Doctor of the University
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...
(D.Univ.) of the University of Glasgow
, image = UofG Coat of Arms.png
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of arms
Flag
, latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis
, motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita
, ...
on 20 April 2015.
In November 2007, Salmond received ''The Spectator
''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world.
It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...
's'' Parliamentarian of the Year award for his "brilliant campaign" and "extraordinary victory" in the Scottish Parliament elections, thereby ending eight years of Labour rule.
References
Further reading
Biographies
* David Torrance,
''Salmond: Against The Odds''
, Birlinn, 2010
Other
*
*
External links
*
First Minister
(Scotland.gov.uk)
Official biography
(www.snp.org)
Guardian profile
Electoral history and profile
(guardian.co.uk)
TheyWorkForYou.com
Voting Record — Alex Salmond MP, Banff & Buchan (10525)
(The Public Whip)
*
, -
, -
, -
, -
, -
, -
, -
, -
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salmond, Alex
1954 births
Alumni of the University of St Andrews
First Ministers of Scotland
Leaders of the Scottish National Party
Living people
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Members of the Scottish Parliament 1999–2003
Members of the Scottish Parliament 2007–2011
Members of the Scottish Parliament 2011–2016
People acquitted of sex crimes
People educated at Linlithgow Academy
People from Linlithgow
People from West Lothian
NatWest Group people
Scottish nationalists
Scottish economists
Scottish National Party MPs
Scottish National Party MSPs
Scottish Presbyterians
UK MPs 1987–1992
UK MPs 1992–1997
UK MPs 1997–2001
UK MPs 2001–2005
UK MPs 2005–2010
UK MPs 2015–2017
RT (TV network) people
Scottish television talk show hosts
Alba Party politicians