Alex Salmond says he made a ‘mistake’ standing down immediately after 2014 independence referendum
Alex Salmond has told ITV Border he made a ‘mistake’ in standing down as First Minister immediately after losing the 2014 independence referendum.
Mr Salmond says he now feels leaving Bute House was ‘a daft thing to do’, claiming ‘manifest opportunities’ to advance the independence cause had been missed.
His claims brought a sharp response from his successor as First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, who told us: "nobody has a greater conceit of Alex Salmond than Alex Salmond."
The two former First Ministers, who were once close but whose relationship has broken down, were speaking as part of a Representing Border special programme for ITV Border, A Decade of Debate.
Mr Salmond, who left the SNP and now leads the Alba Party, said: “I thought to make a point of departure for the referendum in the future was a right thing for the national movement. Looking back, that was a mistake.
“Now, in retrospect, that was a daft thing to do. But then… I thought we were set for independence in a reasonable timescale."
He added: “If you’d told me then that ten years later, we’d still be waiting despite the manifest opportunities there have been, then I would have said, ‘Well, I’ll just hang about then and see the matter through.”
Asked about his comments, Ms Sturgeon who was Mr Salmond’s political protege and chosen successor, said: “I think what anybody, supporter or opponent of Alex, will say is nobody has a greater conceit of Alex Salmond than Alex Salmond.
“So clearly he’s going to think that he could have done things so much better. I say that in as gentle a way as possible, to coin one of his favourite phrases.”
The now backbench MSP said she was no longer ‘best friends’ with Mr Salmond but at the time she wanted him to stay on as leader.
“When he said to me in the early hours of the morning after the referendum that he intended to resign, I tried to talk him out of it. It became clear that wasn’t going to work.
“I think he miscalculated. I think he thought the SNP was going to go into a downward spiral after the referendum and he possibly didn’t want to hang around for that.”
Ms Sturgeon said she had taken time to consider if she wanted to take on the leadership role.
“It was more a sense of I don’t want just to sort of almost by default say, ‘yes I’m going to put myself forward.’ I wanted to take a moment to ask myself some hard questions.
“Not just ‘did I really want it’ but ‘did I actually really think I was capable of it?’. It was a sense of needing take a step back and reflect, which I did, and we know what happened after that.”
In A Decade of Debate, Representing Border looks back on the Scottish Independence debate and discusses its future with key figures from the 2014 referendum.
As well as the former First Ministers, contributors include Blair Jenkins former Chief Executive of Yes Scotland, Blair McDougall former Campaign Director of Better Together, Michael Moore former MP and Secretary of State for Scotland, MPs David Mundell and John Lamont, former MP Calum Kerr and Nicola McEwen, Professor of Public Policy & Governance at Glasgow University.
A Decade of Debate will air on ITV Border Scotland at 8.30pm on Thursday 19th September 2024. It will also be available on ITVX.
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