Alex Salmond: ‘Humza said let’s talk – now he’s snubbing me’

Alex Salmond has revealed he was snubbed by Humza Yousaf after the SNP leader suggested holding talks.

Speaking exclusively to The Sunday Post as the Alba Party conference continues in Glasgow, the former first minister set out what advice he would have offered if a summit had ever taken place.

In a wide-ranging interview, Salmond also called on the first minister to use new borrowing powers to finally deliver the SNP’s long-held pledge to dual the A9.

And revealed he is backing a new proposal from Alba members that would see a guaranteed universal income for mothers to cover the early years of a child’s life.

‘It’s all gone quiet’

Asked what advice he would give Yousaf, Salmond said: “I met Humza at Winnie Ewing’s memorial service and at the time he suggested we have a meeting.

“I’ve made one or two enquiries since but it’s all gone quiet on the meeting front.

“I’d be delighted to meet the first minister and I would give him what advice I could in as best a way I could.”

Salmond wants to see Yousaf adopt a strategy where a majority of votes for pro-independence parties at the next general election would be taken as support for Scotland breaking away from the rest of the UK.

He believes the Scottish Government should then utilise domestic and international pressure to help negotiate the terms.

Salmond slams ‘off the wall’ policies

The former MSP and MP, who led the SNP until 2014 before forming Alba after a blockbuster row with successor Nicola Sturgeon, talked up his influence the believes he still has on his former party.

Yousaf unveiled plans to freeze council tax three days after the Alba leader called for it.

Salmond, who branded Sturgeon’s attention-grabbing appearance at the SNP’s conference in Aberdeen a “curious thing to do”, said Yousaf inherited “off the wall” policies from her government.

But he said the council tax announcement is just the latest in a number of row-backs.

Salmond added: “When he goes back to that policy, which Nicola would never have done, or when he scraps the bottle scheme or calls a halt to that daft fishing policy, he’s doing these things almost by stealth.

“He’s burying them away and hoping no one notices they’ve gone.

“In my view, what he should be doing is saying ‘look, I’ve got a new agenda, I’m not bound by what I inherited, this is a new administration, a new first minister,’ and make a virtue of his U-turns as opposed to smuggling them out in the dead of night.

“That would be one of my pieces of advice – but maybe the advice on independence would be all the advice he wanted.”

Time to honour A9 pledge

Salmond wants the first minister to follow up on his announcement that Scotland will raise money on international bond markets for the first time by using the cash to fulfil the promise to dual the A9.

He claims there is a “strange lack of commitment” to finishing the job, which his government said was on track to be completed by 2025 when he left office.

SNP veteran Fergus Ewing, who has been suspended from the party, repeatedly rebelled against his own government to raise frustration over works to make the route safer following years of fatal crashes.

Salmond said: “It’s time that these commitments were honoured.

“The one member of the Scottish Parliament I would absolve from any criticism on this is Fergus Ewing, who has determinedly attempted to force the pace on these roads and was prepared to rebel against his own government to make the point.

“I have to say I don’t think there are any other people who can regard their contribution with much pride in the last few years.”