STURGEON WILL HAVE TO WORK WITH ME
Salmond says FM must co-operate ‘in the interests of the country’
ALEX Salmond yesterday claimed Nicola Sturgeon will have to put their personal row to one side and work with him in the ‘national interest’ if his new party wins seats.
He also demanded negotiations for Scottish independence start on ‘day one’ of the new Holyrood term if he helps secure a nationalist ‘super-majority’.
The former First Minister insisted a second referendum may not be needed in the latest bid to break up Britain as he revealed a series of tactics he believes could be used instead.
The ideas include his plea to Nicola Sturgeon to begin immediate talks with the UK Government on separation following May’s election – if she is re-elected First Minister.
Mr Salmond warned the SNP it must not ‘pigeonhole’ itself by claiming only a poll like that of 2014 is the way to independence.
He also insisted Miss Sturgeon ‘would follow the guidance of the people’ if he returns to Holyrood as part of a pro-independence super-majority.
The pair have not spoken since 2018, when he took legal action against the Scottish Government’s handling of sexual harassment complaints against him.
Mr Salmond was cleared of 13 counts of sexual assault at the High Court in Edinburgh last year.
Last week, Miss Sturgeon said she had ‘categorically’ ruled out working with him following his sensational bid to return to frontline politics. But Mr Salmond
‘Have to leave the personal behind’
‘I expect all politicians, Nicola included, to accept the verdict of the people and to work with the parliament that people give us.
‘We are at a stage in Scotland where we have to leave the personal behind.’
Mr Salmond set out a series of other tactics including court action, a plebiscite or peaceful protest in order to force a push towards separation.
However, it remains unclear how these alternatives to a legally binding referendum agreed with the UK Government would lead to true independence – including being recognised internationally.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said: ‘Alex Salmond makes it clear he expects Nicola Sturgeon to work with him to railroad through an independence referendum.
‘It is a nightmare scenario which exposes the reckless nationalist obsession of inflicting chaos and division on Scotland when all our attention should be on rebuilding from the pandemic. The toxic Salmond-Sturgeon psychodrama endangers Scotland’s future.’
The previous Scottish parliament had a pro-independence majority made up of the SNP and Greens.
However, the Nationalist majority did not sway Theresa May or Boris Johnson on demands for a second independence referendum, with Mr Johnson most recently rejecting any such move.
But Mr Salmond has claimed that the PM’s resistance to independence would ‘crumble’ if faced with the will of parliament and support from voters.
Mr Salmond said: ‘We think on day one of the new Scottish parliament elected on an independence platform, the Government should go to the parliament for an instruction and that instruction should be that they should begin negotiations with the Westminster Government and they should do it as a parliament with a majority support for independence.
‘Negotiations for independence should start on day one of the parliament.’
Mr Salmond said that Mr Johnson ‘cannot ignore a parliament and a nation’. He also took aim at Miss Sturgeon’s 11-point ‘road map’ to stage a second referendum in the first half of a new parliamentary term – claiming it was ‘ten points too many’.
He set out his own route map to independence yesterday on the 701st anniversary of the Declaration of Arbroath, asserting indesaid: pendence. Mr Salmond read an updated version of the document which included the original phrase ‘we are fighting but for liberty’.
The 2016 Scotland Act defines a ‘super-majority’ as two-thirds of MSPs, meaning 86 of the 129 at Holyrood, needed to pass certain legislation. However, Mr Salmond said: ‘That is not the definition of super-majority that we are using.’
A poll at the weekend put Alba on course for 6 per cent of the vote share, which would give it six MSPs, with the SNP on course for 65 seats and the Greens eight.
This would mean 79 Nationalist MSPs. Mr Salmond said he believed as many as 90 could be returned to Holyrood. Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: ‘For Alex Salmond to plan independence negotiations in the first week is an insult to all those jobs and livelihoods that are still at risk.’
An SNP spokesman said: ‘This election is a choice between those who offer serious leadership capable of delivering and those who indulge in deceptively simple answers to difficult challenges.’
Meanwhile, every jobless Scot aged under 25 would be guaranteed six months of work as part of a £1.2billion Labour pledge to tackle unemployment.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar yesterday unveiled plans for ‘the biggest job creation scheme in the history of devolution’.
‘Nightmare scenario’