Premiership of Alex Salmond

This article is about the events of Alex Salmond's tenure as First Minister. For the people in Alex Salmond's administration, see First Salmond government and Second Salmond government.

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.

Premiership of Alex Salmond 17 May 2007 – 18 November 2014
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Premier	Alex Salmond
Cabinet	1st Salmond government 2nd Salmond government
Party	Scottish National Party
Election	2007, 2011
Seat	Bute House
← Jack McConnell Nicola Sturgeon →

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 administration 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. 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.

Transition to first minister

 

Salmond with Queen Elizabeth II at the opening of the 3rd Scottish Parliament, 2007

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.

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]

First term

Cabinet appointments and changes

Main article: First Salmond government

 

Salmond and his newly appointed cabinet at Bute House, 2007

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.

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.

Scottish independence proposal

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.

2007 Glasgow Airport attacks

Main article: Glasgow Airport attack

 

Salmond with former US Vice President Al Gore at Bute House

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.^[7] 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."^[7]

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".^[7] 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.^[8] 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.^[7]

Renewable energy

 

Salmond with the First Minister and deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, 2008

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".^[9] 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.^[10][11]

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.

2010 UK general election

Main article: 2010 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

 

Salmond meets Sheikh Hamdam Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai.

Salmond said it would be "unacceptable"^[12] 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.^[13] 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".^[14]

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.^[15]

2011 SNP landslide victory

Main article: 2011 Scottish Parliament election

Before the 2011 Scottish election, the SNP again pledged to hold an independence referendum if it won another term.^[16][17] 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.^[18] It also gave Salmond the ability to call a referendum on Scottish independence.

Second Cabinet

Main article: Second Salmond government

Salmond secured a second term as First Minister and formed his second administration. 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.

2014 Scottish Independence Referendum

Main article: 2014 Scottish independence referendum

 

Alex Salmond and David Cameron signing the Edinburgh Agreement, October 2012

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.^[19] The following year the Scottish Government announced that they intended to hold the referendum in late 2014.^[20] 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.^[21]

The SNP government announced that the referendum would be held on 18 September 2014.^[22] Scotland's Future, a white paper setting out the Scottish Government's vision for an independent Scotland, was published on 26 November 2013.^[23][24]

Aftermath of the referendum

Resignation

 

Salmond delivering his resignation speech at a Bute House on 19 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, Salmond announced that he would be resigning as First Minister.^[25] He intended not to seek re-election as leader of the SNP at the party's conference and rather someone new led Scotland forward.^[26]

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.^[27][28] 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.^[29][30]

International relations

Foreign visits

#	Country	Areas visited	Dates	Details^[31]
1	Belgium	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	USA	New York City	October 10, 2007 – October 13	The First Minister promoted Scotland as an attractive location for investment.
3	Sri Lanka	Colombo	November 5, 2007 – November 12	The First Minister attended the decision on the bid by Glasgow for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
4	Ireland	Dublin	February 13, 2008 – February 14	The First Minister attended the British-Irish Council.
5	USA	Washington D.C. New York City	March 29, 2008 – April 6	The First Minister travelled to USA where he undertook a series of engagements as part of the Scotland Week delegation.
6	Spain	Barcelona	December 13, 2008 – December 16	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	USA	Washington D.C.	February 23, 2009 – February 24	Met with United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
8	Hong Kong		April 5, 2009 – April 6	Met with the British Consul General and attended the Scotland-Hong Kong Energy Event held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Hong Kong
9	China		April 7, 2009 – April 10	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	Ireland		April 16, 2009	Met Bertie Ahern, former Taoiseach
11	Denmark	Copenhagen	December 14, 2009 – December 15	Met President of Maldives and had dinner with officials in Copenhagen. Attended the Copenhagen Climate Conference and engaged in meetings with Government Ministers
12	Guernsey		April 1, 2010	Met with the Chief Minister of Guernsey
13	Isle of Man		June 25, 2010	Met with the Chief Minister of the Isle of Man at the British-Irish Council
14	China	Shanghai	July 4, 2010–9 July	Engagements in Shanghai including meetings with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
15	Norway		August 16, 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	India		October 11, 2010–14 October	Various engagements relating to the Commonwealth Games
17	Ireland	Dublin	13 January 2012	Attended the British-Irish Council.
18	USA	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	Isle of Man		16 July 2013–17 July	Met with the Isle of Man Council of Ministers and Eddie Teare, the Isle of Man Treasury Minister.
20	USA		3 April 2014–8 April	Attended various Scotland Week celebrations in the United States.

See also

• Alex Salmond
• Politics of Scotland
• Alex Salmond scandal

References

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2. "SNP and Greens sign working deal". BBC News. 11 May 2007. from the original on 9 October 2007.
3. "MSPs approve new Scottish cabinet". BBC News. 17 May 2007. from the original on 27 May 2007.
4. "Salmond elected as first minister". BBC News. 16 May 2007. from the original on 11 January 2009.
5. Scotland Act 1998, section 45(7)
6. "ORDERS APPROVED AT THE PRIVY COUNCIL HELD BY THE QUEEN AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE". London: Privy Council Office. 13 June 2007. Archived from the original on 3 November 2010. Retrieved 2 June 2015. Order appointing Alex Salmond, MP, MSP as a Member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council.
7. . 4 July 2007. Archived from the original on 4 July 2007.
8. Clegg, David (2 July 2017). "Alex Salmond reveals he watched Glasgow Airport attack unfold with Sean Connery". Daily Record.
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13. "Legal threats to election debate". BBC News. 22 December 2009. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
14. "'Too late' Alex Salmond loses battle with the BBC over debate". The Scotsman. 28 April 2010. Retrieved 12 August 2014.
15. . The Herald. Glasgow. 9 April 2010. Archived from the original on 27 November 2013.
16. Stuart, Gavin (14 April 2011). "SNP launch 'Re-elect' manifesto with independence referendum vow". STV. from the original on 31 August 2011. Retrieved 17 January 2012.
17. Carrell, Severin (6 May 2011). "Stunning SNP election victory throws spotlight on Scottish independence". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. from the original on 5 December 2013. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
18. Holyrood Roundup, Election of First Minister from Scottish Parliament's YouTube, 18 May 2011
19. "Scottish independence: Cameron gives green light to referendum". the Guardian. 7 May 2011. Retrieved 15 July 2021.
20. "Salmond calls for independence referendum in 2014". BBC News. 10 January 2012. from the original on 9 October 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
21. Black, Andrew (15 October 2012). "Scottish independence: Cameron and Salmond strike referendum deal". BBC News. from the original on 7 February 2014. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
22. Carrell, Severin (21 March 2013). "Alex Salmond announces Scottish independence referendum date". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. from the original on 14 November 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
23. "Sturgeon says Scotland's Future now 'drives the debate'". Democracy Live. BBC. 26 November 2013. from the original on 29 November 2013. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
24. Dinwoodie, Robbie (27 November 2013). "Salmond gets ball rolling as opponents put the boot in". The Herald. Glasgow: Newsquest. from the original on 1 December 2013. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
25. "Salmond to quit as First Minister". BBC News Scotland. 19 September 2014. from the original on 19 September 2014. Retrieved 19 September 2014.
26. "Alex Salmond resigns as first minister after Scotland rejects independence". the Guardian. 19 September 2014. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
27. . SNP. Archived from the original on 17 October 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
28. "SNP conference: Nicola Sturgeon appointed party leader". BBC News. 14 November 2014. from the original on 17 November 2014.
29. Kennedy, Doug (18 November 2014). "Alex Salmond's last day as first minister". BBC News Scotland. from the original on 22 November 2014.
30. Campbell, Glenn (13 November 2014). "The transition from Alex Salmond to Nicola Sturgeon". BBC News. from the original on 17 November 2014.
31. https://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20170105130916/http://www.gov.scot/About/People/14944/Events-Engagements/MinisterialEngagements/2010   Text was copied from this source, which is available under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0. © UK Parliament.