SNP Leadership contest 2004

'Nicola and I intend to win the 2007 elections and we will do that by offering a vision to the people where currently there is a vacuum.' SNP leader, Alex Salmond MP, 3 rd September 2004.

Salmond to lead SNP again

By Tom Happold in the Guardian, 3 rd September 2004

Alex Salmond became the comeback kid of Scottish politics this morning when he was elected leader of the Scottish National party, four years after he resigned from the post.

He told supporters and reporters "it's good to be back" and promised to lead the SNP to victory in the 2007 Scottish election.

Mr Salmond will be aided in that endeavour by Nicola Sturgeon, who was elected deputy leader. She will act as the party's leader in the Scottish parliament, where Mr Salmond does not have a seat.

"Nicola and I intend to win the 2007 elections and we will do that by offering a vision to the people where currently there is a vacuum," he said this morning.

"We intend to lead a government of purpose and direction so we can offer the people of this nation the opportunity to move forward to independence, democracy, and equality."

He added that they would be holding his first campaign meeting in Dundee this evening, in a Labour constituency the SNP is targeting at the next election.

Mr Salmond's victory marks the completion of an extraordinary successful U-turn. In June he denied any desire to stand for the leadership, telling reporters: "If nominated I'll decline. If drafted I'll defer. And if elected I'll resign."

But he changed his mind, claiming that he had been swayed by the "huge number" of SNP activists who urged him to stand, and persuaded Ms Sturgeon to abandon her leadership bid and run as his deputy.

Today that decision was vindicated with the announcement that he had secured three-quarters of the vote, defeating the current deputy leader, Roseanna Cunningham, and former chief executive Mike Russell.

Ms Sturgeon received just over half of the vote in the deputy leadership election, beating Christine Grahame and Fergus Ewing.

Mr Salmond - Scotland's most charismatic nationalist after Sean Connery - previously led the SNP for a decade. His confident media performances and knack for opposition enabled him to transform the party from a single-issue movement to Scotland's second party.

He takes over the helm from John Swinney, who found the next step - turning the SNP into a party of government, able to challenge Labour hegemony in Scotland - an impossible one. Mr Swinney resigned in June after disappointing results in the European elections.

In his acceptance speech, Mr Salmond detailed how he wanted to give people bread and butter reasons to vote SNP, alongside their desire for national independence.

He pledged to develop a new vision of social democracy in Scotland. "We currently, as Scots, pay social democratic tax rates, we have social democratic levels of spending - but we don't have social democratic levels of service."