Alex Salmond admits he misses being First Minister of Scotland

ALEX SALMOND has revealed he sometimes wakes in the morning ‘still thinking he’s First Minister’.

The former SNP leader resigned 19 months ago, one day after the Yes campaign lost the referendum on Scottish independence, and was replaced by his deputy Nicola Sturgeon.

In an interview, Mr Salmond admitted he enjoyed the high-profile nature of the job. “I loved being First Minister and yeah, I miss it,” he said.

“I miss the pace of decision making, but I’ve been getting quite adjusted to how things are now.”

He added: “You wake up in the morning and think you’re still First Minister, particularly when there is some emergency.

“I will hear an item on the radio and think ‘Right, I need to summon the resilience committee’.

“Then I go, ‘No, no, that’s not me anymore. Nicola can go and summon the resilience committee’.

“I miss things like that as I loved all that sort of stuff. But it was the right time to stand down.”

The 61-year-old was elected MP for Gordon in May last year and is not standing in next week’s Scottish Parliament elections.

But he has not ruled out a return to Holyrood in the future and remains confident that Scotland will eventually vote for independence.

He said: “My view was always when we got the parliament, Scotland would become independent.

“Timescale is difficult to predict. But the direction of travel is not.

“So whatever timescale Nicola has for the next independence referendum, I’m sure it will be one that allows me to be compos mentis and able to stand for Holyrood.

“So I’m only leaving for now. I’ll be back.”

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