Salmond: 'Sturgeon resignation leaves Yes movement with no strategy'

He also said there was no "obvious" candidate to become the SNP's third first minister, though he said frontrunner Kate Forbes had the "advantage of distance from some of the government's recent difficulties."

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon resigns as First Minister after nine years

In her shock resignation, Ms Sturgeon said she worried she had become an impediment to the independence movement. 

"Is me carrying on right for the country, for my party and for the independence cause I have devoted my life to?" she said.

"I understand why some will automatically answer ‘yes’ to that second question. But in truth, I’ve been having to work harder in recent times to convince myself that the answer to either of them - when examined deeply - is ‘yes’.

"And I’ve reached the difficult conclusion that it’s not."

READ MORE: Sturgeon resigns: Possible SNP leader and First Minister candidates

The First Minister later signalled that her party should use her resignation to consider the way forward and whether or not it should continue with her preference of using the next Westminster election as a de facto referendum.

She said she feared SNP members would back that process not because they believed it was the right option, but because opposing it would lead to questions over her future. 

"By making my decision clear now, I free the SNP to choose the path it believes to be the right one, without worrying about the perceived implications for my leadership - and in the knowledge that a new leader will steer us on that path," she said.

In his statement, Mr Salmond said the de facto vote proposal was now "up in the air."

He said: “There has been no question of Nicola’s talents as a first rate political communicator and election winner and having been there I feel for her personally on the day of her resignation.

"There are two questions for the future.

"One is that the movement has been left with no clear strategy for independence. The previously accepted referendum route has been closed and the defacto referendum/election proposal is now, at best, up in the air.

"Secondly there is no obvious successor. There are a range of able people in the SNP but they will now be tested in the fire of leadership inheriting a range of serious Government policy challenges.

"It is to be hoped that those voices which wish to reunite the national movement emerge to win that contest.”

READ MORE: Sturgeon dodges question on SNP 'fraud' probe as she quits

Mr Salmond was Ms Sturgeon’s mentor for decades, and she served as his deputy for seven years after the party came to power in 2007. When he stood down in the wake of the Yes side's defeat in the 2014 referendum, she was his natural successor. 

The two dramatically fell out over sexual misconduct claims which surfaced in 2018.

He took Ms Sturgeon’s government to court and was awarded £512,000 in costs after proving it had bungled a misconduct probe relating to his time in office.

The two politicians later gave conflicting evidence to a Holyrood inquiry into the Government’s actions, when Ms Sturgeon said she had not spoken to Mr Salmond since the misconduct claims became public knowledge in August 2018.

He later claimed that Ms Sturgeon had misled Holyrood about the matter, a resignation offence which she was later cleared of.

Mr Salmond was charged with multiple counts of sexual assault but cleared of all of them at a High Court trial in 2020.

In 2021, Mr Salmond set up the rival pro-independence Alba party, and has since been a vocal critic of Ms Sturgeon’s independence tactics.

Asked what was the First Minister's undoing, Mr Salmond told Sky News: "I don't know. I mean, there's a multitude of problems just now in terms of policy delivery in Scotland, not just the gender recognition bill, but things like the non-delivery of the A9 which was a huge project in Scotland, the mounting problems in health and education, a looming difficulty over a deposit return scheme, but none of these things are things that you don't normally cope with.

"Governing is quite difficult. Normally, when you've come up against a problem, you find another way, you change the direction, you resolve these, clear the decks, especially since her policy was to have a de facto referendum next year in the general election.

"You would think that would be your moment, you'd either win or lose, that would be a moment for stepping down.

"I think it's a surprise to most people. It's certainly a surprise to me."

Mr Salmond said he did not think the resignation was sparked solely by the Gender Recognition Bill.

“I don't think it's a single issue. I think that was a major misstep. And certainly, the Scottish press corps and the London press were on her case, because it was legislation which quite easily, you could detect flaws in it, to say the very least.

“And it alienated many women's campaigners who saw it as a threat to their single-sex spaces. So it was a big, big misstep.”

He said it had caused “a great deal of damage, but I can't see that as a single explanation.”

Mr Salmond said he hoped Ms Sturgeon’s successor would “reignite the national movement, and perhaps do a bit more about separating the business of government, which is different and causes great controversy, from the cause of independence.

He said somebody from the “new generation” would be most likely to take over from Ms Sturgeon.

Asked for his thoughts on the frontrunner, Kate Forbes, he said the Finance Secretary - who has been on maternity leave for most of the last six months and missed the vote on the Gender Recognition Reform Bill - “had the advantage of distance from some of the government's recent difficulties.”

He went on to describe her as “an incredibly able young woman.” 

“There's a number of able people in the SNP. The SNP is not short of political talent. Of course, we'll now find out if they can take that talent to the government, but the fundamental thing for me is someone… to get the independence movement together and to get the show meaningfully back on the road.”