Scottish Government in talks to bring Alex Salmond's body back from North Macedonia

The former SNP leader – who led Scotland from 2007 until 2014 – died suddenly during a conference in the city of Ohrid.

The Scottish Government is in talks with the Foreign Office to bring back the body of Alex Salmond from North Macedonia after the former first minister’s death on Saturday. The former SNP leader – who led Scotland from 2007 until 2014 – died suddenly during a conference in the city of Ohrid.

His death at 69 from a suspected heart attack sent shockwaves through the political world in the UK at the weekend. The Scottish Government said it was working with UK officials to return Mr Salmond’s body to Scotland.

A spokesperson said: “The Scottish Government has been in regular dialogue with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) since Saturday to ensure full support is in place for the family and around the repatriation of the former First Minister.”

First Minister John Swinney lodged a motion of condolence at the Scottish Parliament on Monday while the flags at St Andrews House in Edinburgh have been lowered since Sunday as a mark of respect. Mr Swinney praised Mr Salmond’s “substantial and significant contribution that he made over many decades to public life”.

The UK Government confirmed it is working with local authorities in North Macedonia, with a spokesperson for the FCDO saying: “We are providing consular support to the family of Alex Salmond following his death in North Macedonia, and are in contact with the local authorities and Scottish Government.”

A spokesperson for the Alba Party added: “Discussions are taking place and we can expect an update this evening.” Talks are ongoing between Kate Forbes, Scotland’s Deputy First Minister, Scottish Secretary Ian Murray and Foreign Secretary David Lammy to repatriate Mr Salmond, the PA news agency understands.

Tributes poured in over the weekend to the former first minister, who led the SNP in the 1990s and again between 2004 and 2014. He later quit the SNP and founded the rival party Alba in 2021, which he led until his death.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland on Monday, Kenny MacAskill – who served in Salmond’s cabinet and defected with him to his new party in 2021 – said Alba would continue. “Of course, the party continues, we owe it to Alex, ” he said. “It was never the Alex Salmond party, it was Alex Salmond’s inspiration and Alex Salmond’s driving force, but the party is made up of thousands more and, as I say, that legacy will continue.”

Writing to Alba Party members on Monday, Mr MacAskill paraphrased Mr Salmond’s resignation speech, saying: “The dream he cherished so closely and came so close to delivering will never die. We will honour him.” In his later years, Mr Salmond was locked in a legal battle with the government he formerly led, winning more than £500,000 in court after it was found an investigation into harassment complaints against him was “tainted by apparent bias”.

In November 2023, Mr Salmond announced he would be taking further action, warning a “day of reckoning” for the Scottish Government was coming as he named former first minister – and political protegee – Nicola Sturgeon and ex-permanent secretary Leslie Evans in the case, accusing both of “misfeasance”.

At the time the case was launched, then-first minister Humza Yousaf said the Government would defend itself “robustly”. That action could continue if his family took the decision it should, Mr MacAskill said, a move he would support. “It’s a matter for the family to decide,” he said.

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“My own position is that I will respect whatever the family decide, but I would certainly hope and I believe that they are likely to continue this, because that court case will expose, I believe, malfeasance amongst individuals and institutions that really has to be brought out to allow history to properly remember Alex Salmond.”

While Sir David Davis, a Conservative MP and close friend of Mr Salmond, told the same programme he wanted to “open up this whole issue”, adding that the Scottish Parliament should be given powers of privilege to allow it to investigate without fear of prosecution.

The legal issues in the latter years of Mr Salmond’s life – which saw him cleared in the High Court of a number of sexual offences including attempted rape – had “put a huge pall over the last several years of this great man’s life and, who knows, it might even have accelerated his death, I don’t know, I can’t comment on that”, he said.

“I want to see this exposed, so that the Scottish Government is forced to answer questions on this matter,” he added. Sir David has also pushed the Foreign Office to use RAF planes to repatriate Mr Salmond’s body with “both dignity and expedition”.

“They’ve been listening,” he said of the Government. “But I know there are practicalities, there aren’t just aircraft sitting on a runway ready to take off. But they’re working on making it happen one way or another, whether it’s an RAF flight or a civil flight.”

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