Alex Salmond was a dominant figure in Scottish politics for nearly four decades, serving as leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) for two separate terms (1990-2000 and 2004-2014) and as first minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014.

Salmond was instrumental in the SNP’s rise to power and in securing the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.   

Salmond joined the SNP in the early 1970s. He served as the MP for Banff and Buchan (1987-2010) and later for Gordon (2015-2017). He was also a member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Banff and Buchan (1999-2001) and Gordon (2007-2016).  

After leading the losing campaign in the 2014 independence referendum, he resigned as first minister and SNP leader. His relationship with his successor, Nicola Sturgeon, later broke down following investigations into complaints of sexual harassment against him, relating to his time as first minister. He was acquitted of all charges in March 2020.   

Salmond resigned from the SNP in 2018 and launched the pro-independence Alba Party in March 2021, serving as its leader until his death.

Salmond died suddenly from a heart attack on 12 October 2024, aged 69, while attending a conference in Ohrid, North Macedonia.   

Alex Salmond: first minister and the independence referendum (2007-2014)

In the 2007 Holyrood election, the SNP emerged as the largest party, winning 47 seats and unseating Labour. Salmond was appointed as the new first minister of Scotland.

From 2007 to 2011, Salmond led a minority SNP government.

In 2011, the SNP won an unprecedented overall majority in the Scottish Parliament election, confounding pollsters and expectations. The SNP secured 69 of the 129 seats at Holyrood – a majority of four. It was an outcome that the parliament’s additional member voting system was designed to prevent. Under Holyrood’s additional member system (AMS), voters in Scotland are given two ballots: one to elect 73 constituency members under the first past the post (FPTP) system; and a second to elect 56 ‘additional’ MSPs, seven for each of eight regions. In 2011, the SNP took 45.4% of the constituency vote and 44.7% of the regional vote, increasing its number of MSPs by 22 (compared to the notional 2007 base, adjusted for boundary changes).

David Cameron, the prime minister, congratulated the SNP leader for an “emphatic win”.

The result fundamentally altered the constitutional debate in the UK, setting Scotland on a direct path to the 2014 independence referendum. In January 2012, after Cameron called for greater clarity as to the SNP’s intentions, Salmond set out his intention to hold an independence referendum in the autumn of 2014. The UK government did not stand in its Scottish counterpart’s way. 

The 2012 Edinburgh Agreement, signed by Cameron and Salmond, set out the legal framework (a Section 30 order) for the Scottish parliament to hold a single-question referendum on independence. The agreement also provided for the franchise to be extended, for the first time, to 16 and 17-year-olds. The question that appeared on the ballot paper, according to the Edinburgh Agreement, was as follows: “Should Scotland be an independent country?”.

Salmond spearheaded the Yes Scotland campaign during the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. He was seen as a formidable debater, and showed his skills against Alistair Darling, who led the pro-Union Better Together campaign.

However, the people of Scotland voted to remain part of the United Kingdom in the Scottish independence referendum, a central pledge of the SNP. The ‘No’ campaign won with 2,001,926 votes (55.3%) against 1,617,989 votes (44.7%) for the ‘Yes’ campaign. The result was delivered on an exceptionally high national turnout of 84.6%.

The comfortable ‘No’ victory led to Salmond’s resignation as first minister and SNP leader. He was succeeded by his protégé, Nicola Sturgeon.

In his resignation statement, Salmond said: “I am immensely proud of the campaign which Yes Scotland fought and of the 1.6 million voters who rallied to that cause by backing an independent Scotland…

“But today the point is this. The real guardians of progress are not the politicians at Westminster, or even at Holyrood, but the energised activism of tens of thousands of people who I predict will refuse meekly to go back into the political shadows.

“For me right now, therefore there is a decision as to who is best placed to lead this process forward politically.

“I believe that in this new exciting situation, redolent with possibility, party, parliament and country would benefit from new leadership.”

He added: “It has been the privilege of my life to serve Scotland as first minister. But as I said often during the referendum campaign this is not about me or the SNP. It is much more important than that.

“The position is this. We lost the referendum vote but can still carry the political initiative. More importantly Scotland can still emerge as the real winner.”

The SNP’s electoral surge continued through to the 2015 general election, when the party won 56 out of 59 available seats. Labour was the principal victim of this latest expression of nationalist sentiment; Ed Miliband’s party collapsed from 40 seats in Scotland to just one. Salmond returned to Westminster as MP for Gordon in 2015, and served as the SNP’s foreign affairs spokesperson.

Salmond lost his seat at the 2017 general election.

Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon

Salmond first encountered Nicola Sturgeon in 1990 when she worked on his successful campaign for the SNP leadership. Salmond later described her at that time as “a precocious teenage prodigy…bubbling with vitality and talent”.

Sturgeon herself has acknowledged Salmond’s early influence, stating he “believed in me, long before I believed in myself”. Sturgeon’s husband, Peter Murrell, who served as the SNP’s chief executive from 2001 until March 2023, also previously worked in Salmond’s office.

From 2007 to 2014, Salmond and Sturgeon led the Scottish Government as first minister and deputy first minister.

However, this close political partnership disintegrated following allegations of sexual harassment against Salmond dating from his time as first minister, which emerged publicly in 2018. Salmond strongly denied the allegations. He resigned his membership of the SNP in August 2018 while challenging the fairness of the Scottish Government’s internal investigation procedure.

In January 2019, the Court of Session ruled that the government’s investigation had been unlawful and awarded Salmond £512,000 in legal costs.

Separately, following a police investigation, Salmond was arrested and charged in January 2019. In March 2020, Salmond was found not guilty on 12 sexual assault charges.

The handling of the initial complaints against Salmond led to a highly publicised and acrimonious fallout between him and Nicola Sturgeon, and became the subject of a Scottish Parliament committee inquiry (often referred to as the ‘Salmond inquiry’) in 2020-2021.

The inquiry was set up to “consider and report on the actions of the first minister, Scottish Government officials and special advisers in dealing with complaints about Alex Salmond, former first minister, considered under the Scottish Government’s ‘Handling of harassment complaints involving current or former ministers’ procedure and actions in relation to the Scottish ministerial code.”

Murrell, Sturgeon’s husband and SNP chief executive, denied the suggestion that there was a “plot” to ensure Salmond’s downfall when he appeared before the inquiry to give evidence on 8 December 2020.

On 17 March 2021, David Davis – a Conservative MP and close friend of Salmond – used parliamentary privilege to criticise the Scottish Government’s handling of allegations against Salmond.

The inquiry report, published on 23 March, found that the Scottish government’s handling of harassment complaints against Alex Salmond was “seriously flawed”. It also found that Sturgeon had misled their inquiry in her evidence. The finding stopped short of ruling Sturgeon misled parliament “knowingly”. Sturgeon was also cleared of breaching the ministerial code by a separate independent inquiry headed by senior Irish lawyer James Hamilton.

In the aftermath of the report’s publication, Sturgeon survived a motion of no confidence brought against her by Ruth Davidson, the former leader of the Scottish Conservatives.

Alex Salmond and Alba

On 26 March 2021, Salmond officially launched the Alba Party and assumed its leadership.

Alba’s formation was fuelled by the breakdown in the relationship between Salmond and Sturgeon.

The party was established to contest the regional lists in the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections with the stated aim of building a “supermajority for independence”. Alba’s core ideology was fundamentalist Scottish nationalism, arguing for independence to be treated as an “immediate necessity”. The party argued that the Scottish government does not need “permission to choose independence.”

Alba proposed that a majority of votes for pro-independence parties at any national election would constitute a popular mandate to begin independence negotiations with the UK government.

Alba combined this with a more economically radical and socially conservative stance on certain issues, which distinguished it from the more established pro-independence parties, such as the SNP. Notably, Alba was staunchly opposed to the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, which sought to amend the Gender Recognition Act 2004, making it simpler for people to change their gender without having to obtain a medical diagnosis. Salmond described holding a gender-critical belief as a “cardinal aspect of Alba policy”.

Alba was also republican and proposed that an independent Scotland should have an “elected head of state with similar powers to the Uachtarán na hÉireann [president of Ireland].”

Salmond was supported in the launching of Alba by two sitting SNP MPs, Kenny MacAskill and Neale Hanvey, both Salmond allies.

At Alba’s launch, Salmond declared: “The party’s strategic aims are clear and unambiguous – to achieve a successful, socially just and environmentally responsible independent country.

“The tactics are to stand on the regional list to secure the supermajority for independence in our parliament.”

He added: “Today we are making an entirely positive statement and also asking people to come forward and give us support.”

Salmond confirmed he would stand on the North-East Scotland list in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.

Responding to Alba’s formation, Sturgeon said: “I take no pleasure whatsoever in saying this but I think there are significant questions about the appropriateness of his return to public office given the concerns that have been raised about his behaviour previously but that’s for voters to judge and decide.”

Alba’s manifesto for the 2021 election outlined that the party was “established to bring urgency into the timetable for delivering independence for Scotland, by maximising the list vote to build a pro-independence supermajority at Holyrood and to use our place as part of that supermajority to make absolutely sure there is no more backsliding on timetables.”

In the 2021 election, the party secured 44,913 votes (1.7%) on the regional list vote and zero MSPs.

In October 2023, the party gained its first representative in the Scottish Parliament when Ash Regan, a former SNP leadership contender and minister, defected to Alba. Regan placed third in the 2023 SNP leadership election, winning 5,599 votes (11.1%) in the first round. Regan had resigned from the Scottish government in October 2022 over the Gender Recognition Reform Bill. In her resignation statement, Regan said her “conscience” could not allow her to vote for the gender reform proposals.

In April 2024, Alba rose to prominence over the vote of confidence in the SNP government of Humza Yousaf. Regan, who stood against Yousaf in the 2023 SNP leadership election, effectively held the casting vote with the parliamentary arithmetic so finely balanced. The Scottish Greens, the SNP’s former pro-independence partners in government, were lined up to vote against Yousaf, alongside the Scottish Conservatives, Scottish Labour and the Scottish Liberal Democrats.

At the time, Salmond referred to Regan as the “most powerful MSP in the Scottish Parliament”. 

On 28 April, Salmond said his party was “prepared to assist” Yousaf “as long as independence is restored as the key priority of the Scottish government.” The intervention came after Yousaf reportedly ruled out a pro-independence SNP-Alba pact. 

On 29 April, Yousaf resigned as first minister of Scotland, saying he was not willing “to trade my values and principles – or do deals with whomever – simply for retaining power.”

At the 2024 general election, the party fielded 19 candidates, winning 11,784 votes (0.5%). Both MacAskill and Hanvey were unseated, and all 19 candidates failed to reach the 5% threshold, losing their £500 deposits.

In October 2024, Salmond, Alba’s founder and leader, died unexpectedly. According to the party’s constitution, the Alba depute leader, MacAskill, assumed interim control of the party.

Alba was voluntarily de-registered with the Electoral Commission on 26 March 2026 – the fifth anniversary of its official launch – with the party facing reportedly severe financial and political problems. The decision followed a meeting of the party’s national executive committee (NEC) in Perth.

Alex Salmond: rise to prominence (1979-2007)

Salmond’s political career began in the SNP’s left-wing 79 Group, a prominent left-wing ginger group/faction in the SNP. Formed in the wake of the first devolution referendum, the faction called for the establishment of a “socialist and republican Scotland”, and embraced direct action campaigning tactics. At the time, Salmond argued that only a “party willing to call for civil disobedience, primarily through organised labour, will be able to effectively back a democratic Scottish majority for a parliament.”

The traditional leadership of the SNP resisted the adoption of left-right politics, and the Campaign for Nationalism in Scotland was founded in opposition to the 79 Group. At the SNP’s conference in 1982, the party’s leader, Gordon Wilson, persuaded his party to ban factions, effectively expelling the 79 Group, which refused to cease its activities, and its membership. “Those of us who put Scotland and the party above narrow personal or political obsessions cannot and will not tolerate behaviour which is divisive and harmful”, Wilson stated.

The 79 group members were largely readmitted in later years, including Salmond.

Salmond won the constituency of Banff and Buchan for the SNP in the 1987 general election. He quickly made his mark at Westminster, notably disrupting the 1988 budget delivered by chancellor of the exchequer Nigel Lawson. The disruption occurred as Lawson announced a radical, classically Thatcherite set of tax cuts.

Salmond, then the deputy leader of the SNP, decried the budget proposals as an “obscenity”, adding: “This is an obscenity. The chancellor cannot do this.” The SNP MP was subsequently named and suspended from the House following a division. MPs backed a motion to suspend Salmond by 354 votes to 19. Those 19 MPs included Labour leftwingers Diane Abbott, Jeremy Corbyn, Bob Cryer and Dennis Skinner.

Faced with persistent defiance and a general uproar from the opposition benches, the deputy speaker took the rare step of suspending the House. After the 10-minute suspension, proceedings resumed and Lawson was able to complete his speech.

The House of Commons was not televised at this stage. But Lawson later described the episode as “some of the most amazing scenes ever to have taken place on budget day” and “a particularly loutish display of the politics of envy”.

Salmond served as deputy leader of the SNP from 1987 to 1990 under Wilson.

In 1990, recognised for his growing appeal, particularly among working-class voters, Salmond stood for the party leadership and won. Throughout the 1990s, Salmond reshaped the SNP into a more modern, social democratic, nationalist party.

This meant Salmond was leader of the SNP when, on 11 September 1997, Scotland voted emphatically in favour of a devolved parliament with tax-varying powers. The official ‘Yes’ campaign during the 1997 referendum, Scotland Forward (styled ‘Scotland FORward’), was supported by Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP under Salmond.

The first Scottish Parliament election, held on 6 May 1999, resulted in a Labour victory with the most seats (56). The SNP placed second with 35 seats. Under the rules of the new parliament, the 129 MSPs voted to nominate one of their members to be first minister.

Donald Dewar, the leader of the Labour Party in Scotland, defeated Salmond, by 71 votes to 35.

Responding to Dewar’s election, Salmond said: “I would like to be the first to congratulate Donald on his elevation to the position of Scotland’s first first minister. It is no small thing to be the first minister of Scotland in its first Administration for 300 years.”

He added: “In congratulating Donald today, I dedicate my party to being an innovative and determined opposition. In many ways, such an opposition is every bit as important to a new democracy as the administration itself.”

Dewar announced his first cabinet in May 1999, which included two Liberal Democrat MSPs. Jim Wallace became deputy first minister and minister for justice; fellow Liberal Democrat Ross Finnie became minister for rural affairs. This Lib-Lab partnership proved remarkably stable, lasting through two elections and three different Labour first ministers (Dewar, Henry McLeish, and Jack McConnell) until 2007. 

Throughout this period the SNP served as the official opposition.

Salmond, however, stepped down as SNP leader in 2000 after facing internal criticism. He was succeeded by John Swinney.

Salmon also stepped down from the Scottish Parliament and went on to leader the SNP group in the House of Commons. In this capacity, he led the SNP in opposing the Iraq War.

Following the 2004 Scottish Parliament elections, Swinney resigned as leader of the SNP and Salmond announced his intention to stand as his successor. He was re-elected as SNP leader overwhelmingly; his newly elected deputy, Nicola Sturgeon, served as leader of the SNP group in the Scottish Parliament as Salmond still did not have a seat.

Salmond led the SNP into the 2007 Scottish Parliament election and stood in the Gordon constituency.   

Political Views

Salmond’s lifelong political goal was achieving Scottish independence. As a leading member of the ’79 Group from 1979 to 1982, Salmond positioned himself on the left wing of the SNP. He later moderated his stance to build broader support for independence within a social democratic framework.   

As the leader of Alba, Salmond became a fierce critic of the SNP leadership and its strategy for independence. In December 2023, he stated Scotland had endured a “decade of drift” under the SNP, which he said had “dithered and delayed forging ahead to independence”.

In February 2017, Salmond voted against the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill. The legislation empowered the prime minister to notify the Council of the European Union of the UK’s intention to withdraw, formally triggering the process set out in Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union. MPs supported the bill by 498 votes to 114 at second reading.

Salmond was a vehement critic of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

In March 2003, Salmond voted for a rebel amendment which argued that the case for war against Iraq had not been established. A total of 139 Labour, 53 Liberal Democrat and 15 Conservative MPs backed the amendment. The government’s unamended motion authorising military action against Iraq passed by 412 votes to 149.

As a member of the House of Commons, Salmond also voted against a government motion calling for the renewal of the Trident nuclear deterrent system in July 2016. The motion, which was passed by 472 votes to 117, committed the UK to constructing a new fleet of submarines to carry the nation’s nuclear weapons.

Salmond voted against a government motion to extend UK airstrikes against Isis from Iraq into Syria in December 2015. The motion, which was passed by 397 votes to 223 after a ten-hour debate in the House of Commons, authorised the RAF to conduct strikes against Isis targets in Syria.

Before Politics

Born Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond on 31 December 1954 in Linlithgow, Scotland. His parents, Robert and Mary Salmond (née Milne), were civil servants.   

Salmond attended Linlithgow Academy and then the University of St Andrews, graduating in 1978 with a degree in economics and medieval history.   

Salmond joined the Government Economic Service in 1978 as an assistant economist in the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland. From 1980 to 1987, he worked for the Royal Bank of Scotland, first as an assistant economist and later as an oil economist.   

Personal Life

Salmond married Moira McGlashan in 1981.

Trivia

Salmond joined the SNP after a row with his then girlfriend. In an argument about Labour’s commitment to Scotland in 1973, Salmond’s then-girlfriend reportedly shouted, “If you feel like that, go join the bloody SNP!”. Salmond took his girlfriend’s advice.