Alex Salmond ‘died on spot’ from suspected massive heart attack

Alex Salmond
Alex Salmond - Academy for Cultural Diplomacy/PA

Alex Salmond “fell sick and died on the spot” from a suspected massive heart attack, police have said.

“Time stopped” when the former Scottish first minister fell backwards in his chair and was caught by a fellow speaker at a diplomacy conference in North Macedonia at around 3.30pm on Saturday, delegates said.

Efforts were made to resuscitate Mr Salmond, 69, with CPR, but when paramedics arrived they concluded there was nothing that could be done to save him.

Friends and family in Scotland were informed of his death by Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, a former SNP MP and close associate of Mr Salmond, who had accompanied him to the event in the city of Ohrid.

Sources who were close to Mr Salmond described a race to inform his 87-year-old wife, Moira, of his death before the news broke publicly.

Local police confirmed that Mr Salmond had died instantly, according to a statement issued by North Macedonia’s ministry of internal affairs.  Prosecutors have ordered an autopsy, with the cause of death not yet officially confirmed.

North Macedonian media also reported that they understood he had died from a significant heart attack, while friends of Mr Salmond said they believed he had suffered “a massive coronary”.

Chris McEleny, the general secretary of the Alba Party, which Mr Salmond led, arrived in Macedonia on Sunday to help repatriate his body, which it is hoped the RAF will fly home.

Mr Salmond had taken part in a panel discussion at the conference on Friday, where he appeared in good spirits. Mark Donfried, one of the conference organisers, said delegates had been left in a state of shock at his death.

“Really, time stopped,” he said. “All of a sudden at lunchtime he was sitting across [from me]. He collapsed, he was sitting and fell back into the arms of one of the other speakers.

“I immediately went to the front desk to ask for an ambulance, and by the time I came back he was on the floor and they were trying CPR. The good news is he didn’t suffer. I don’t think he felt any pain.”

In some of his final public remarks, the day before he died, Mr Salmond accused the EU of secretly conspiring with the UK Government against Scottish independence.

He had singled out Jose Manuel Barroso, the former European Commission president, as being “not at all helpful to Scotland” in the run-up to the 2014 referendum.

Before the vote, Mr Barroso had warned that it would be “extremely difficult, if not impossible” for an independent Scotland to join the EU in a major blow to the Yes campaign run by Mr Salmond.

Alex Salmond
Mr Salmond had made a joke about Scots’ thriftiness - Academy for Cultural Diplomacy/Facebook

Mr Salmond also suggested that an alleged covert partnership between the UK and EU against his campaign had backfired as it indirectly led to the Brexit vote less than two years later.

“It is a reasonable supposition that if Scotland had voted for independence, then England, two years later, would not have voted to leave the European Union,” he told delegates. “So the interesting thing is that although Scotland lost an opportunity, the UK has been diminished.

“The European Union of that time, President Barroso in particular, was not helpful at all to Scotland. In fact, [he] was secretly combining with the UK Government.

“What happened as a result of that is the UK, one of the major players in the European Union, ended up leaving 18 months later. So in many ways it was a bad outcome for Europe as a whole.”

Mr Salmond had earlier made a joke about Scots’ reputation for thriftiness to the international audience, warning them he would not be buying anyone lunch as “I’m Scottish after all, we don’t do these sort of things”.

John Swinney, the current First Minister, said Mr Salmond had inspired a generation to believe in independence and “left a fundamental footprint on Scottish politics”.

Following a series of sexual misconduct allegations, Mr Salmond fell out with Nicola Sturgeon, his former protege, and left the SNP in 2018.

She said that while she “cannot pretend” their fallout had not happened, Mr Salmond would be remembered for his achievements and that she was shocked and sorry to learn of his death.

However, Mr Salmond died believing some of his former allies in the SNP had conspired in an attempt to have him jailed, and his supporters vowed to continue to fight to clear his name.

He was acquitted of a series of sexual misconduct charges at a trial in 2020 and had a Civil Service investigation into the allegations ruled unlawful and “tainted by apparent bias”.

Joanna Cherry, a former SNP MP and KC, claimed that Mr Salmond was “stabbed in the back” by his former friends before his death, but that outstanding court cases would restore his reputation.

“We have innocent until proven guilty in this country for a reason, and I am very dismayed as a lawyer by the lack of respect there’s been for the jury verdict in Alex’s criminal charges,” Ms Cherry told BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show.

“I think it’s a terrible tragedy that Alex has died before he was able to be completely vindicated, but I believe that that time will vindicate his name.”

In his final public remarks, posted on X hours before his death, Mr Salmond had launched a scathing attack on Mr Swinney for participating in Sir Keir Starmer’s Council of the Nations and Regions on Friday.

He claimed the body implied a “regional status” for the “nation of Scotland” and that Mr Swinney should have boycotted it. His final comment was: “Scotland is a country, not a county.”