Sturgeon pays tribute to Alex Salmond following sudden death

The pair were once considered to be amongst the most formidable pair in UK politics. However, Mr Salmond and Ms Sturgeon had been increasingly critical of each other in the last few years following the breakdown of their relationship.

Ms Sturgeon said she could not pretend that breakdown did not happen.

But she said: "It remains the fact that for many years Alex was an incredibly significant figure in my life.

"He was my mentor, and for more than a decade we formed one of the most successful partnerships in UK politics.

"Alex modernised the SNP and led us into government for the first time, becoming Scotland's fourth first minister and paving the way for the 2014 referendum which took Scotland to the brink of independence.

"He will be remembered for all of that. My thoughts are with Moira (his wife), his wider family and his friends."

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Ms Sturgeon served as deputy first minister under Mr Salmond's leadership between 2007 and 2014. And when he resigned after the country voted against Scottish independence, he encouraged his protégé to take the reigns.

Her statement added: "I am shocked and saddened to learn of Alex Salmond's death.

"Obviously, I cannot pretend the events of the past few years which led to the breakdown of our relationship did not happen, and it would not be right for me to try."

Fractures in the pair's relationship began to emerge in 2017, when Mr Salmond made a sexual innuendo about Ms Sturgeon, Ruth Davidson and Theresa May during an Edinburgh Festival Fringe chat show.

SNP politicians John Swinney, Nicola Sturgeon, Alex Salmond and Michael Russell. (Image: PA) In response, Ms Sturgeon said: "Occasionally Alex is not as funny as he thinks he is."

Since then, Mr Salmond and Ms Sturgeon had a long-running public rivalry, with the friendship shattering a year later when Mr Salmond faced allegations of sexual misconduct from his time in office.

He strongly denied the claims and successfully took legal action against the Scottish Government for its handling of the investigation into him.

Mr Salmond was awarded more than £500,000 as a result.

He was charged with 14 offences, including two counts of attempted rape but was acquitted of every charge in 2020.

In 2021, Mr Salmond launched the Alba Party which has spent much of its existence criticising Ms Sturgeon and her two successors Humza Yousaf and John Swinney.

He often appeared to be one of the SNP's harshest critics and delivered scathing verdicts of the Scottish Government the party led in Holyrood.

In an interview with The Herald just weeks before he died, he said the Scottish public thought "a lot less" of the Scottish Parliament as a result of how the party governed in his absence.

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He said: “It’s very difficult to look at the last 10 years and not have seen a slippage in the public’s esteem in which they hold the Parliament. You have to restore that. The way to get people to believe in independence, partly, is to demonstrate that you can run the shop.”

Mr Salmond used his Alba Party to campaign for a different route to independence, repeatedly arguing the SNP were not "renewing the case" for the cause.

In recent months, particularly in reference to the 10 years since the independence referendum in 2014, Mr Salmond has discussed his relationship with his former mentee.

Speaking in a BBC documentary titled Salmond and Sturgeon: A Troubled Union, he said he did not know if the relationship could ever be mended.

"I don’t really do hurt feelings very much … but it’s a big regret that Nicola and I are no longer on speaking terms,” he said.

“And I seriously doubt if it’s going to improve.

“Now that’s a great pity, because I did indicate that you shouldn’t say anything is forever, but that’s the way it looks and that’s just the way it’s going to be.

“We’ll just have to let the past take care of itself.”

Reflecting on her relationship with Mr Salmond and its breakdown, Ms Sturgeon – who unexpectedly resigned in 2023 – said he was “for a long time, a very positive force in my life”, adding: “But I think I had to learn how to be myself.”

But despite these sentiments, Mr Salmond went on to state in a separate ITV Border documentary that he believed it was a "mistake" to step down to pave the way for his successor.

He described it as a "daft thing to do" after seeing how the decade had played out. Ms Sturgeon hit back stating: "Clearly he's going to think he could have done things so much better."

Professor Sir John Curtice, who also spoke to The Herald in the weeks before Mr Salmond's sudden death, said the turbulent relationship between Ms Sturgeon and Mr Salmond had hindered the independence cause.

The polling guru said: "One of the single political strengths that the nationalists have had, really, throughout the whole 25 years of devolution has been that politically they were united whereas the unionists - until the very end of the 2014 campaign - were fragmented.

"The risk that has been kicking around the nationalist movement in the last three or four years in the wake of the whole Salmond Sturgeon row and the rise of the Greens is that political unity has been frayed at the edges."