From the SNP’S most successful chief to the party outsider in just four years

Undoubtedly the SNP’S most successful ever leader, Alex Salmond’s decision to quit the party he joined some 45 years ago comes four years after he stood down as Scotland’s First Minister.

After winning an unprecedented majority at Holyrood in the 2011 Scottish elections, Mr Salmond led the SNP during the 2014 referendum campaign in which Scots voted by 55 per cent to 45 per cent to keep the country in the UK.

Soon after the result of that ballot was known, Mr Salmond stood down as party 0 Alex Salmond was first elected as an MP in 1987

leader and First Minister. At the time of his resignation he insisted “the campaign continues and the dream will never die”.

He had first become SNP leader in 1990 and stayed in the role for ten years during which time the devolved Scottish Parliament was established.

Mr Salmond, already the MP for Banff and Buchan, went on to win the corresponding seat in the first Holyrood elections in 1999 when his SNP group formed the main opposition to the Labour/liberal Democrat coalition. He stood down as SNP leader in 2000, but returned to the post in 2004.

With Nicola Sturgeon as depute leader, the pair was duly elected to lead the SNP in 2004. Three years later they took the party into power at Holyrood, with 47 MSPS to Labour’s 46.