Scottish independence leader running for UK parliament
Salmond says he wanted to return to politics in London to ‘make sure that Scotland gets what it’s promised’
LONDON: Alex Salmond, who quit as Scotland’s first minister after losing the independence referendum, announced Sunday he will run for a seat in the British parliament in the May general election.
Salmond, who led the campaign for Scotland to leave the United Kingdom, said he wanted to return to politics in London to “make sure that Scotland gets what it’s promised” from the post-referendum colony.
Scotland voted by 55 per cent to 45 per cent to remain part of the UK in the September 18 referendum.
Salmond announced the day afterwards that he would step down as first minister in the devolved Edinburgh parliament, and as leader of the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP).
Eleven weeks on, the 59-year-old said would bid for a seat in the British parliament, after previously serving as an MP from 1987 to 2010.
“With so much commitment among the people and with so much at stake for Scotland, I think it’s impossible to stand on the sidelines,” he told a local constituency meeting in Scotland. Salmond’s party currently holds six of Scotland’s 59 seats in the 650-member British parliament.
