Alex Salmond: SNP ready for Westminster campaign

Alex Salmond reacts to being given a standing ovation at yesterday's SNP conference. Picture: Greg Macvean

The outgoing First Minister, who was replaced by Nicola Sturgeon as party leader on Friday, said the “wind is in our sails” ahead of May’s general election, and he declared he is “more convinced than ever” that Scotland will one day become independent.

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Ms Sturgeon took over the reins as head of the party during the SNP annual conference in Perth, and will formally replace him as First Minister after a vote in Holyrood later this week.

Mr Salmond announced that he would be resigning as both SNP leader and First Minister within hours of the referendum defeat in September.

Writing in the Sunday Herald newspaper today, he said: “The Yes campaign did not prevail on September 18, 2014, but that date will now come to be seen as the pivotal moment in Scotland’s story: the tipping point at which the final destination become all but inevitable.

“Because, as I made clear to SNP delegates in Perth, the experience of the referendum campaign has left me more convinced than ever that Scotland will indeed become an independent nation.”

In the wake of the referendum, the party has seen its membership numbers increase significantly, going from 25,000 to more than 85,000.

Mr Salmond said: “The SNP is ready to mount our biggest, best-organised and best-resourced Westminster campaign ever, with many of the 85,000-plus members mobilising to ensure we press home the advantage that gives us on the ground in constituencies across the land.

“The wind is in our sails and we have set a target of winning a UK election in Scotland for the first time in the SNP’s history, with the prospect of candidates being selected from among the wide Yes alliance which so invigorated Scottish politics these last few months.”

He said it was the “biggest privilege” of his life to be First Minister for the last seven years, calling it an “extraordinary” time for him personally, for the party and country.

Talking about passing the baton on to Ms Sturgeon, he said she would be an “absolutely outstanding leader”.

• Tom Peterkin: Nicola Sturgeon has her work cut out

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