By Sachin Ravikumar and Andrew MacAskill
LONDON (Reuters) -Scottish former First Minister Alex Salmond, who helped change the course of Scottish politics and pushed Scotland to the verge of independence from the UK, died on Saturday. He was 69.
Salmond, who headed the devolved Scottish authorities for seven years from 2007, is credited with serving to enhance help for Scottish independence throughout a 2014 referendum by which Scots voted 55%-45% in favour of staying in the UK.
The BBC stated Salmond had collapsed after giving a speech in North Macedonia.
Leaders from throughout the political divide paid tributes to Salmond, a formidable debater who led the Scottish Nationwide Occasion (SNP) from 1990 to 2000 and from 2004 to 2014.
“For more than 30 years, Alex Salmond was a monumental figure of Scottish and UK politics. He leaves behind a lasting legacy,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated.
“He cared deeply about Scotland’s heritage, history, and culture, as well as the communities he represented.”
After constitutional modifications re-established a Scottish Parliament in 1999, Salmond oversaw the transformation of the SNP from a tiny variety of lawmakers in London’s parliament to the dominant political pressure in Scotland.
The independence motion that he led despatched shock waves via Britain’s political elite and energized Scottish politics.
His fame was broken by allegations of sexual assault courting again to when he was first minister from 2007 to 2014, together with one cost of tried rape. He was cleared of all fees in 2020, following a trial.
In 2021, Salmond established a celebration referred to as Alba – after the Scottish Gaelic identify for Scotland – which had little electoral success, and he courted controversy by internet hosting a political speak present on Russian channel RT.
Salmond joined the SNP as a pupil and was a distinguished member of a socialist faction that agitated for change within the celebration. The group was expelled from the celebration in 1982 however he was reinstated inside a month.
He had labored as an economist on the Scottish authorities’s agriculture division and the Royal Financial institution of Scotland (NYSE:).
Salmond is survived by his spouse Moira McGlashan, whom he married in 1981.
