90 Facts About Alex Salmond

Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond was a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014.

Alex Salmond then served as leader of the Alba Party from 2021 until his death in 2024.

Alex Salmond was elected to the British House of Commons in 1987, serving as the Member of Parliament for Banff and Buchan from 1987 to 2010.

Alex Salmond was elected as the Member of the Scottish Parliament for Banff and Buchan in that year's election.

Alex Salmond 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.

Alex Salmond was re-elected as leader of the SNP in the 2004 leadership contest, after running on a joint ticket with Nicola Sturgeon.

Alex Salmond led the SNP at Holyrood until Salmond was elected to the Scottish Parliament in 2007 for Gordon.

The SNP placed first, ahead of the governing Labour Party in the 2007 election by one seat, with Alex Salmond securing a confidence and supply support from the Scottish Greens, resulting in Alex Salmond's appointment as first minister.

Alex Salmond led an SNP minority government in his first term.

Alex Salmond's government passed landmark legislation, including the abolition of university tuition fees, the scrapping of prescription charges and commitment to renewable energy.

Alex Salmond was the first nationalist first minister and in his first term he failed to obtain support for a referendum on Scottish independence due to insufficient support.

Alex Salmond used this mandate to hold a referendum, which led to the signing of the Edinburgh Agreement and the 2014 referendum.

Alex Salmond was the SNP International Affairs and Europe spokesperson from 2015 to 2017.

Alex Salmond left the House of Commons at the 2017 general election after losing his seat to the Scottish Conservative Party candidate Colin Clark.

Alex Salmond later was announced as the leader of a new pro-independence party, the Alba Party.

Alex Salmond led the party until his death in 2024.

Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond was born at his parents' home at 101 Preston Road, Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland, on 31 December 1954.

Alex Salmond was the second of four children born to Robert Fyfe Findlay Salmond and Mary Stewart Salmond, both of whom were civil servants.

Robert Alex Salmond, who served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, had originally worked as an electrician, and his family had been resident in Linlithgow since the mid-18th century.

Alex Salmond remained a member of the Church of Scotland his whole life.

Alex Salmond's 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.

Alex Salmond was a skinny child, often referred to by his father as a "skink", as in Cullen Skink.

Alex Salmond was educated at Linlithgow Primary School, before attending Linlithgow Academy from 1966 to 1972.

Alex Salmond 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, where he studied Economics and Medieval History.

Alex Salmond was elected as vice-president of the students' representative council in 1977 and was nominated to join St Andrews Community Council that year.

Alex Salmond graduated with a 2:2 Joint Honours MA in Economics and Medieval History in May 1978.

Alex Salmond became active in the SNP when he joined the Federation of Student Nationalists at the University of St Andrews in 1973.

Alex Salmond's 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.

Alex 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.

Alex Salmond was, along with other group leaders, suspended from membership of the SNP when the 79 Group was banned within the larger party.

Later that year Alex Salmond became Senior Vice Convener of the SNP.

Alex Salmond was at this time still viewed as being firmly on the left of the party and had become a key ally of Jim Sillars, who joined him in the House of Commons when he won a by-election for the seat of Glasgow Govan in 1988.

Alex Salmond served as a member of the House of Commons Energy Select committee from 1987 to 1992.

When Gordon Wilson stood down as SNP leader in 1990, Alex Salmond decided to contest the leadership.

Alex Salmond went on to win the leadership election by 486 votes to Ewing's 146.

Alex 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, but still pro-independence, strategy.

Alex Salmond was one of the few politicians in the UK to oppose the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999.

Alex Salmond was opposed to the conflict because it was not authorised by a United Nations Security Council resolution, which was a controversial subject at the time.

In 1998, Alex Salmond won the Spectator Award for Political Strategist of the Year.

Alex Salmond was elected to the Scottish Parliament in 1999 and was one of its highest-profile members as Leader of the Opposition.

Alex Salmond 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.

Alex Salmond resigned from the Scottish Parliament on 14 May 2001 to lead the SNP group in the House of Commons.

Alex Salmond went further than many anti-war politicians in claiming that Blair's statements on the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq were consciously intended to deceive the public.

On 15 July 2004, Alex Salmond said that he would be a candidate in the forthcoming election for the leadership of the SNP.

Alex Salmond led the Scottish National Party through the 2007 election to the 3rd Scottish Parliament.

On 16 May 2007, with the support of the Greens, Alex Salmond was elected by the Parliament to succeed Jack McConnell as First Minister of Scotland.

Alex Salmond was appointed to the British Privy Council four weeks later.

Alex Salmond became the first nationalist politician to hold the office of First Minister.

Alex Salmond appointed Sturgeon as his Deputy First Minister and reappointed Elish Angiolini as Lord Advocate, the first time a Lord Advocate had served two different governments.

Alex 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.

The Guardian reported in November 2007 that Alex Salmond believed Scotland would be independent within "the next decade".

Alex 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 on 30 June 2007, the first terrorist attack in Scotland since the Lockerbie bombing incident in December 1988.

Alex Salmond issued a statement regarding the attacks in Edinburgh, calling for "the need for vigilance and unity against the forces of terror and rightly praised the work of the emergency services".

Alex 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 Alex Salmond, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice Kenny MacAskill and the Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini to attend an emergency COBRA meeting.

In September 2010, Alex Salmond proposed legislation that would give Scottish Water powers to build "green" power stations, windfarms and hydropower schemes in cooperation and competition with existing energy companies.

Alex Salmond stated that this would make Scotland the 'world's first hydro-economy'.

At this election, Alex Salmond was re-elected for Aberdeenshire East, essentially a reconfigured version of Gordon.

On 7 November 2012, Alex Salmond surpassed the 2,001-day term of his predecessor, Jack McConnell.

In September 2012, Alex Salmond made a snap reshuffle in light of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.

Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond Neil switched roles, with Sturgeon taking on responsibility for the independence referendum.

Alex Salmond further pledged to continue the freeze of council tax across Scotland in order to establish a "social wage", as well as driving work forward to deliver the governments commitment to the abolition of bridge tolls, free concessionary travel, prescription charges and personal care.

An agreement was signed on 15 October 2012 by David Cameron and Alex 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.

On 19 September 2014, following the results of the independence referendum which confirmed a majority of the Scottish people had voted against independence, Alex Salmond announced that he would be resigning as First Minister in November 2014.

On 7 December 2014, Alex Salmond announced that he would stand as the SNP candidate for the Westminster constituency of Gordon in the 2015 May election.

Alex Salmond indicated that he did not intend to replace Angus Robertson, MP for Moray, as the SNP leader in the House of Commons.

On 13 May 2015, Alex Salmond was appointed as the SNP's foreign affairs spokesman in the House of Commons.

On election night, Alex Salmond lost his seat as member for Gordon to Colin Clark of the Conservatives, receiving 19,254 votes to the Conservatives' 21,861.

On 9 November 2017, the RT channel announced he would host a show called The Alex Salmond Show on the network.

Alex Salmond was criticised by Scottish politicians from the other parties for a perceived lack of judgement.

In February 2022, Alex Salmond announced that his show on RT had been suspended, following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Alex Salmond asked permanent secretary to the Scottish Government, Leslie Evans, to consider her position.

On 23 March 2020, Alex Salmond was cleared of all charges.

In May 2021 The Times reported that Alex Salmond was writing a book about his trial.

On 26 March 2021, Alex Salmond announced he had joined and become leader of the Alba Party, a new pro-independence party, to contest the upcoming 2021 Scottish Parliament election.

Alex Salmond was Alba's lead candidate on the North East Scotland list.

Alex Salmond claimed that the party had established itself as a political force in only six weeks and would remain on the political scene.

Alex Salmond said that the proposed 2023 independence referendum would need to take place, but if it did not, then there would be huge political change in Scotland, in which Alba would play a strong part.

Alex Salmond himself was not a candidate, saying that it was his intention to contest the Banffshire and Buchan Coast seat at the Next Scottish Parliament election.

Alex Salmond said that he voted for the SNP in Aberdeenshire North and Moray East, due to Alba not standing a candidate there.

Alex Salmond was critical of Humza Yousaf, the eventual victor, widely considered the candidate most supportive of Sturgeon's progressive policies, who had served as a minister under Alex Salmond.

Alex Salmond repeated the accusation that Yousaf, the only leadership candidate who had been an MSP at the time of that vote, had missed the final vote due to pressure from religious people, although Yousaf did vote in support of the Bill at other stages.

Alex Salmond was a member of the Church of Scotland and considered himself to be a religious man.

Alex Salmond succeeded Robin Cook as a racing tipster for Glasgow's Herald newspaper.

Alex Salmond supported the Scotland national football team and Heart of Midlothian FC, and sometimes attended matches.

Alex Salmond took an interest in Scottish cultural life, as well as watching Star Trek and listening to country music.

Alex Salmond reached over offering to help, and as he attempted to open the bottle he suddenly collapsed to the floor.

Alex Salmond further added "Obviously, I cannot pretend that the events of the past few years which led to the breakdown of our relationship did not happen, and it would not be right for me to try".

Alex Salmond's body returned back in Scotland at around 2pm GMT following the flights landing at Aberdeen Airport, in which his arrival was marked by members of his family and the acting leader of the Alba Party, Kenny MacAskill, with a lone piper playing as the coffin disembarked the plane.

Alex Salmond was awarded several honorary degrees in recognition of his political career.

In November 2007 Alex Salmond received The Spectator award for Parliamentarian of the Year, in honour of his "brilliant campaign" and "extraordinary victory" in the Scottish Parliament elections, which ended eight years of Labour rule.