![]() Official portrait, 2007 | |
Premiership of Alex Salmond 17 May 2007 –18 November 2014 | |
Monarch | Elizabeth II |
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Cabinet | |
Party | Scottish National Party |
Election | |
Seat | Bute House |
Alex Salmond's term as first minister of Scotland began on 17 May 2007 when he was formally sworn into office at the Court of Session. It followed his Scottish National Party's win at the 2007 Scottish Parliament election,where his party defeated the incumbent Labour Party by just one seat. Salmond's term ended on 18 November 2014,following his resignation in the aftermath of the Yes campaign's defeat in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.
Salmond led the Scottish National Party (SNP) through the 2007 Scottish Parliament election,where his party won 47 seats,one more than the incumbent Scottish Labour. Initially approaching the Scottish Liberal Democrats for a coalition,they declined,and instead,Salmond formed a minority government with the confidence and supply deal of the Scottish Greens. Entering office,the Salmond government conducted a series of reforms of the Scottish Executive,including rebranding the Executive to the Scottish Government. A month into his term,he was faced with the 2007 Glasgow Airport attack,Scotland's worst terrorist attack since the Lockerbie bombing in 1988. The first nationalist First Minister,Salmond's government made attempts to push legislation for a referendum on Independence,however,the SNP failed to obtain support from other parties and withdrew the draft bill. His government passed legislation on free prescription charges and free university tuition fees. Salmond was committed to tackling the climate crisis through the Partnership Agreement with the Maldives,one of the most exposed countries to the consequences of rising sea levels.
The 2011 Scottish Parliament election resulted in Salmond winning an unprecedented landslide victory. The SNP won the first ever single-party majority,with 69 out of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament. Salmond used his majority to push for a referendum on the second-half of the parliament term. As constitutional matters remain reserved to the British Government,Prime Minister David Cameron agreed to grant the powers to hold a referendum known as the Edinburgh Agreement. Salmond’s government oversaw the 2014 Commonwealth Games,which received widespread acclaim. The Scottish independence referendum was held on 18 September 2014,with a majority of the Scottish people voting against independence. As a result,Salmond resigned as First Minister of Scotland and leader of the SNP. He was succeeded by Nicola Sturgeon,his deputy first minister.
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First Term Second Term First Minister of Scotland
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Salmond led the Scottish National Party through the 2007 Scottish election to the 3rd Scottish Parliament. His party came out as the largest party with 47 seats, one seat ahead of the incumbent Scottish Labour. The SNP initially approached the Scottish Liberal Democrats to form a coalition, but they declined to take part in negotiations. [1] This left the SNP without any possibility to form a coalition with an overall majority. Ultimately, the Scottish Greens agreed to vote in an SNP minority government in return for concessions on climate policy and naming a Green to chair a committee. [2]
With the support of the Greens, Salmond was elected by the Scottish Parliament as First Minister on 16 May 2007, and was sworn in the following day after receiving the Royal Warrant from the Queen and taking the official oath of allegiance before judges at the Court of Session. [3] [4] Salmond became the first nationalist politician to hold the office of First Minister and it was the first time an incumbent First Minister was defeated from office.[ citation needed ]
Under section 45(7) of the Scotland Act 1998 he became Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland at the same time. [5] He was appointed to the Privy Council four weeks later, giving him the title of 'The Right Honourable'. [6]
On the same day of Salmond's appointment, he began making appointments to the Scottish Cabinet. He reduced the size of the Cabinet from nine members to six and restyled the title of cabinet members from 'Minister' to 'Cabinet Secretary'. He sought govern on a "policy by policy" basis and removed the Lord Advocate from cabinet, in order for the position to be non-partisan. [4]
Salmond appointed SNP Depute Leader Nicola Sturgeon as Deputy First Minister of Scotland, as well as, the role of Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing. John Swinney was appointed Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, Fiona Hyslop Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Kenny MacAskill Cabinet Secretary for Justice, and Richard Lochhead Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment.[ citation needed ]
On 2 September 2007, the Scottish Executive rebranded to the Scottish Government. Salmond said the change was made so that the executive acted like a government. However, it received major criticism by other parties over the cost, which was estimated to have been around £100,000 for the rebrand.[ citation needed ]
A white paper 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.[ citation needed ]
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". [7] 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. [8]
Salmond had been First Minister of Scotland for just over a month when the first terrorism attack in Scotland since the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the town of Lockerbie in December 1988, when a vehicle rammed the front entrance of the main terminal building at Glasgow Airport on 30 June 2007. [9] 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." [9]
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". [9] 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 and the Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini to attend an emergency COBRA meeting. [10] By the evening of 30 June, Salmond had attended an online conference discussion with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown and his governmental cabinet. [9]
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 potential and therefore take full advantage of the "renewable revolution". [11] 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. This included signing a Partnership Agreement with the Maldives, one of the most exposed countries to the consequences of rising sea levels. [12] [13]
Although energy is mostly a matter reserved to Westminster, administrative devolution of Sections 36 & 37 of the Electricity Act 1989 coupled with fully devolved planning powers enabled the Scottish Government to establish Scotland as a leader in renewable energy developments.
Salmond said it would be "unacceptable" [14] 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 buildup to the 2010 UK general election. The party used the Freedom of Information 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. [15] 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". [16]
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. [17]
Before the 2011 Scottish election, the SNP again pledged to hold an independence referendum if it won another term. [18] [19] 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 reelected for Aberdeenshire East, essentially a reconfigured version of Gordon. The SNP's overall majority assured Salmond of another term as First Minister, and he was reelected unopposed on 18 May. [20] It also gave Salmond the ability to call a referendum on Scottish independence.
Salmond secured a second term as First Minister and formed his second government. Nicola Sturgeon remained as Deputy First Minister and Health Secretary, until 2012, when she was reshuffled to Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Capital Investment and Cities. Sturgeon's reshuffle was made for her to have overall responsibility over the Scottish independence referendum. Salmond increased his cabinet size from six to eight. John Swinney, Michael Russell, Kenny MacAskill and Richard Lochhead all remained. Fiona Hyslop, Alex Neil and Bruce Crawford were all promoted to cabinet.
In December 2011, Salmond spent £260 on a pair of trews that he wore to a ball in China. [7] He refunded the taxpayer more than a year later, after a newspaper had submitted a freedom of information request. [7] 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. [7] 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 delegation [21] that spent £468,580 on the trip as part of preparations for hosting the same tournament two years later. [22] 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". [21]
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. [7] [23] 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. [23]
Salmond has faced scrutiny for his closeness to Rupert Murdoch. [24] [25] [26]
Salmond was an early supporter of then-future US President Donald Trump'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". [27] 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. [28] 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". [28]
In January 2016, Salmond, prompted by broadcasting colleague Iain Dale, called Trump a "chicken" for refusing to appear on his LBC 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". [29]
Following Salmond's election victory in the 2011, which produced an SNP majority, he pushed for a referendum on Scottish independence. While constitutional matters are reserved to the UK Government, Prime Minister David Cameron said he wouldn't stop a referendum from happening. [30] The following year the Scottish Government announced that they intended to hold the referendum in late 2014. [31] On 15 October 2012, an agreement, known as the Edinburgh Agreement, was signed by Salmond and Cameron which provided a legal framework for the referendum to be held. [32]
The SNP government announced that the referendum would be held on 18 September 2014. [33] Scotland's Future , a white paper setting out the Scottish Government's vision for an independent Scotland, was published on 26 November 2013. [34] [35]
On 19 September 2014, following the results of the independence referendum which confirmed a majority of the Scottish people had voted against independence, Salmond announced that he would be resigning as First Minister. [36] He intended not to seek re-election as leader of the SNP at the party's conference and rather someone new led Scotland forward. [37]
For me as leader my time is nearly over, but for Scotland, the campaign continues and the dream shall never die.
— Alex Salmond
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 on 14 November. [38] [39] 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. [40] [41]
# | Country | Areas visited | Dates | Details [42] |
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1 | ![]() | Brussels | July 11–12, 2007 | The First Minister held a reception for key European contacts and attended a Passchendaele memorial service with Her Majesty The Queen. |
2 | ![]() | New York City | 10 October 2007 – 13 October | The First Minister promoted Scotland as an attractive location for investment. |
3 | ![]() | Colombo | 5 November 2007 – 12 November | The First Minister attended the decision on the bid by Glasgow for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. |
4 | ![]() | Dublin | 13 February 2008 – 14 February | The First Minister attended the British-Irish Council. |
5 | ![]() | Washington D.C. New York City | 29 March 2008 – 6 April | The First Minister travelled to USA where he undertook a series of engagements as part of the Scotland Week delegation. |
6 | ![]() | Barcelona | 13 December 2008 – 16 December | Salmond met with the Mayor of Barcelona as well as toured the Barcelona Olympic Games Facilities. Salmond also had lunch with Catalan government officials, and later met with the President of Catalonia and Vice-President of Catalonia. |
7 | ![]() | Washington D.C. | 23 February 2009 – 24 February | Met with United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton |
8 | ![]() | 5 April 2009 – 6 April | Met with the British Consul General and attended the Scotland-Hong Kong Energy Event held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Hong Kong | |
9 | ![]() | 7 April 2009 – 10 April | Attended the Scotland Reception held at Westin Hotel, Shanghai and met with the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries. Met with Vice Foreign Minister Mr Li, Hui in Beijing | |
10 | ![]() | 16 April 2009 | Met Bertie Ahern, former Taoiseach | |
11 | ![]() | Copenhagen | 14 December 2009 – 15 December | Met President of Maldives and had dinner with officials in Copenhagen. Attended the Copenhagen Climate Conference and engaged in meetings with Government Ministers |
12 | ![]() | 1 April 2010 | Met with the Chief Minister of Guernsey | |
13 | ![]() | 25 June 2010 | Met with the Chief Minister of the Isle of Man at the British-Irish Council | |
14 | ![]() | Shanghai | 4 July 2010–9 July | Engagements in Shanghai including meetings with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs |
15 | ![]() | 16 August 2010–18 August | Met with the British Ambassador to Norway and with the Senior executives of Statnett to discuss North Sea Grid. Salmond also met with the Norwegian Secretary of State for Petroleum and Energy, the Norwegian Minister of Finance to discuss Norwegian oil fund, and the Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. | |
16 | ![]() | 11 October 2010–14 October | Various engagements relating to the Commonwealth Games | |
17 | ![]() | Dublin | 13 January 2012 | Attended the British-Irish Council. |
18 | ![]() | Los Angeles | July 2012 | Various cultural engagements as well as attending the premiere of Brave . Salmond also appeared on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson . |
19 | ![]() | 16 July 2013–17 July | Met with the Isle of Man Council of Ministers and Eddie Teare, the Isle of Man Treasury Minister. | |
20 | ![]() | 3 April 2014–8 April | Attended various Scotland Week celebrations in the United States. |
The Scottish National Party is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 63 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons. It has 453 local councillors of the 1,227 available. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom and for Scotland's membership in the European Union, with a platform based on progressive social policies and civic nationalism. Founded in 1934 with the amalgamation of the National Party of Scotland and the Scottish Party, the party has had continuous parliamentary representation in Westminster since Winnie Ewing won the 1967 Hamilton by-election.
Scottish independence is the idea of Scotland regaining its independence and once again becoming a sovereign state, independent from the United Kingdom. The term Scottish independence refers to the political movement that is campaigning to bring it about.
John Ramsay Swinney is a Scottish politician who has served as the First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) since May 2024. He previously served as the leader of the SNP from 2000 to 2004 as Leader of the Opposition, and held various roles within the Scottish Cabinet from 2007 to 2023 under First Ministers Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon. Swinney was Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for North Tayside from 1999 to 2011 and, following boundary changes, has been MSP for Perthshire North since 2011. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Tayside North from 1997 to 2001.
Angus Struan Carolus Robertson is a Scottish politician serving as the Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture since 2021. Formerly Depute Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from 2016 to 2018, he has served as the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Edinburgh Central since 2021. Robertson previously served as a Westminster MP for Moray from 2001 to 2017, where he served from 2007 to 2017 as the Leader of the SNP in the House of Commons.
Fiona Jane Hyslop is a Scottish politician who has served as Cabinet Secretary for Transport since 2024. Hyslop has served in various offices under first ministers Salmond, Sturgeon, Yousaf and Swinney; as education secretary, culture secretary, and economy secretary as well as in junior ministerial roles. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), she has been a member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Linlithgow constituency since 2011, having represented the Lothians region from 1999 to 2011.
Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon is a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from 2014 to 2023. She has served as a member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) since 1999, first as an additional member for the Glasgow electoral region, and as the member for Glasgow Southside from 2007.
In Scotland, the Scottish National Party (SNP) is a left social democratic political party which campaigns for Scottish independence. The SNP has controlled Scotland's devolved legislature since the 2007 election as a minority government, and were a majority government from the 2011 election and have been a minority government, since the 2016 election.
Stewart Hosie is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Dundee East from 2005 to 2024. He served as the SNP Treasury Spokesperson from 2022 to 2023, and previously from 2015 to 2017. He served as the SNP Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office since 2021. He served as Deputy Leader of the SNP to Nicola Sturgeon from November 2014 to October 2016. He was also the SNP Deputy Westminster Leader and the SNP Treasury Spokesperson from May 2015, until he was succeeded in both positions by Kirsty Blackman in June 2017.
Angela Constance is a Scottish politician serving as Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs since 2023. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), she has been the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Almond Valley since 2007.
Keith James Brown is a Scottish politician serving as Depute Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) since 2018. He is a former Royal Marines commando and has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) since 2007, first representing the Ochil constituency from 2007 to 2011, then the Clackmannanshire and Dunblane constituency since 2011. Brown previously served in the Scottish Cabinet, most recently as Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans from 2021 to 2023.
Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond is a Scottish politician, economist and television host, who served as First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014. A prominent figure in the Scottish nationalist movement, he has served as Leader of the Alba Party since 2021. Salmond was leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), on two occasions, from 1990 to 2000 and from 2004 to 2014. He served as the party's depute leader from 1987 to 1990. Salmond hosted The Alex Salmond Show (2017–2022) on RT UK. He currently hosts Scotland Speaks with Alex Salmond (2023–present).
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 won with 2,001,926 (55.3%) voting against independence and 1,617,989 (44.7%) voting in favour. The turnout of 84.6% was the highest recorded for an election or referendum in the United Kingdom since the January 1910 general election, which was held before the introduction of universal suffrage.
Events from the year 2014 in Scotland.
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Alex Salmond formed the second Salmond government on 19 May 2011 following his Scottish National Party's landslide victory in the 2011 election to the 4th Scottish Parliament. This was the first single-party majority government in the history of the devolved parliament. Salmond's second government ended on 18 November 2014 upon his resignation as First Minister of Scotland.
Nicola Sturgeon formed the first Sturgeon government on 20 November 2014, following the resignation of previous SNP First Minister, Alex Salmond. Sturgeon, who had been Deputy First Minister under Salmond, was elected to succeed him by the SNP majority in the Scottish Parliament on 19 November 2014, before being officially sworn in in front of senior judges at the Court of Session the next day.
Ashten Regan is a Scottish politician. She has been the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Edinburgh Eastern since 2016. Initially elected to parliament for the Scottish National Party (SNP), she defected to the Alba Party. Regan served under First Minister Nicola Sturgeon as the minister for community safety from 2018 until she resigned in 2022 in protest against her government's Gender Recognition Reform bill.
Nicola Sturgeon's term as first minister of Scotland began on 20 November 2014 when she was formally sworn into office at the Court of Session. It followed Alex Salmond's resignation following the defeat of the Yes campaign in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. She is the first female and longest serving officeholder. Sturgeon's premiership was dominated by Brexit, which she used as an argument to hold a second referendum on Scottish independence, however, opposition from the UK Government, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the cost of living crisis and the ruling against her government holding an advisory referendum would be obstacles for Sturgeon securing her legacy of gaining Scottish independence. Sturgeon's term ended on 29 March 2023, following her resignation announcement on 15 February, in which she claimed occupational burnout was the reason for her resignation.
Nicola Sturgeon served as deputy first minister of Scotland under First Minister Alex Salmond from 2007 until she succeeded Salmond in 2014. She was the first woman to hold office. Sturgeon, in parallel to serving as deputy first minister, served as the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing from 2007 to 2012 and Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Capital Investment and Cities from 2012 to 2014.
Order appointing Alex Salmond, MP, MSP as a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council.