Alex Salmond, Scottish economist and politician, 4th First Minister of Scotland
Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond (; born 31 December 1954) is a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014, currently serving as leader of the Alba Party since 26 March 2021. He was previously the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), serving two terms, from 1990 to 2000 and from 2004 to 2014. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Banff and Buchan from 1987 to 2010, when he stood down to focus on his role as First Minister, and then for Gordon from 2015 to 2017. Salmond was the Depute Leader of the SNP from 1987 to 1990 and was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) from 1999 to 2001 and 2007 to 2016.
From 1987 to 2010, Salmond was MP for Banff and Buchan. Following the establishment of the devolved Scottish Parliament in 1999, Salmond was also the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Banff and Buchan from 1999 to 2001, continuing to serve as that constituency's MP. Salmond resigned as SNP leader in 2000 and did not seek re-election to the Scottish Parliament. He retained his Westminster seat in the 2001 general election. Salmond was again elected SNP leader in 2004 and the following year held his Banff and Buchan seat in the 2005 general election. In 2006 he announced his intention to contest Gordon (later Aberdeenshire East) in the 2007 Scottish Parliament election. Salmond defeated the incumbent MSP and the SNP emerged as the largest single party. After the SNP secured confidence and supply support from the Scottish Greens, Salmond was voted First Minister by the Scottish Parliament on 16 May 2007. During his first term, he headed a minority Scottish Government. At the 2011 Scottish Parliament election the SNP won with an overall majority, a feat previously thought almost impossible under the additional member system used in elections for the Scottish Parliament. As of 2021, this is the only election in which a party has won a majority in the Scottish Parliament.
Politically, Salmond was one of the foremost proponents of Scottish independence, repeatedly calling for a referendum on the issue. Salmond has campaigned on global warming and in government committed Scotland to legislation on emission reduction and the generation of renewable energy. The day after the 2014 independence referendum, at which a majority of Scottish voters rejected independence from the United Kingdom, Salmond announced his intention not to stand for re-election as leader of the SNP at the SNP National Conference in November, and to resign as First Minister thereafter. He was succeeded as SNP leader by his deputy, Nicola Sturgeon, the only candidate to stand in the leadership election. He submitted his resignation as First Minister on 18 November, and was succeeded by Sturgeon the following day.Returning to Westminster, Salmond was elected MP for Gordon in the 2015 general election. He was the SNP International Affairs and Europe spokesperson from 2015 to 2017. He left the House of Commons at the 2017 general election after losing his seat to the Scottish Conservative Party candidate Colin Clark. In August 2018, Salmond resigned from the party to fight allegations of sexual misconduct which he denied. In January 2019, he was charged with 14 offences, including attempted rape and sexual assault, but was compensated £500,000 by the Scottish Government in August 2019 and later acquitted of all charges after trial in March 2020. In 2021, he criticised Sturgeon for her government's flawed investigations into these allegations which resulted in a political scandal.