Alex Salmond was “the most vilified yet most courageous of politicians”, a former Yes campaign chief has said.
Dennis Canavan worked closely with the then first minister during the run-up to the 2014 referendum on independence.
The pair first met in the 1970s when Salmond was a student at the University of St Andrews and Canavan was a newly elected Labour MP.
Despite initially having opposing views on the Scotland’s constitutional future, they would form a close working partnership in the 2010s.
Canavan described the ex-first minister, who died on Saturday aged 69, as a “very charismatic character with brilliant communication skills… whether he was talking to politicians or ordinary working class people”.
But the former Labour MP said Salmond “suffered a great deal” in recent years.
He told the Record: “I did not always agree with Alex. I thought that he was wrong to resign as First Minister in the immediate aftermath of the referendum and I think that the cause of independence has suffered as a result.
“Alex also personally suffered a great deal. By his own admission, he had his faults but, in recent years, he became the most vilified yet most courageous of politicians. Sometimes in politics you discover that your greatest enemies are people whom you thought were your friends.”
Salmond repeatedly denied wrongdoing after he was accused of multiple accounts of sexual harassment and assault. He would be cleared of all charges following a trial in March 2020.
He had previously won a civil case against the Scottish Government after it botched the handling of complaints made against him in 2018 by civil servants.
But the episode led to the end of Salmond’s long friendship with Nicola Sturgeon.
Canavan left Scottish Labour in 1999 and later served as an independent MSP before joining the advisory board of the Yes campaign for independence.
He said: “It’s worth recalling that, at the start of that referendum campaign, support for independence was less than 30 per cent and, by the end of the campaign, it had risen to 45 per cent. Not enough to win, but a good base to build on and it is largely due to Alex’s hard work that support for independence is still around 50 per cent.
“He was a very charismatic character with brilliant communication skills, whether he was talking to politicians and other powerful people or just having a chat with ordinary working class people. He was also a workaholic who instilled a strong work ethic in other team members.”
Canavan added: “I last shared a platform with Alex just a few weeks ago at an event to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the referendum. He was his usual jovial self, still full of optimism about Scotland’s future.
“For him, independence is unfinished business .It is now up to others to complete the job but independence, when it comes, will be very much the legacy of Alex Salmond.”
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