John Swinney has said he also intervened to stop Alex Salmond’s bullying when he was SNP leader. The First Minister said he told Salmond his behaviour was “not on” when he was “quite brisk with people”.
It comes after Nicola Sturgeon said she had to intervene “many times” to stop Salmond’s bullying behaviour.
Swinney told BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show: “I think it’s pretty well documented that Alex could be quite brisk with people and sometimes we all witnessed that. And sometimes we all had to say: ‘Look, that’s not on’. And that’s the way it was.”
When asked if he told him to cut it out, Swinney replied: “That’s just the way it was.”
In an interview with the Financial Times, Sturgeon had said Salmond was a great debater but also a bully. She said: “He would be really rough on people. Many times I intervened to stop him.”
Swinney served as finance secretary for the whole of Salmond’s tenure as first minister between 2007 and 2014. He was then in all of Sturgeon’s cabinets until she resigned in 2023.
Salmond died in October last year after suffering a heart attack in North Macedonia. Sturgeon paid tribute to him when he died but was not invited to the funeral and did not attend a Holyrood condolences debate. The pair fell out after Sturgeon’s government pursued sexual harassment allegations against Salmond.
Salmond was acquitted of sexual assault charges in 2020. But the pair continued their fall out and he headed up the rival pro-independence Alba party the following year.
Deputy leader of Alba Kenny Macaskill, hit back at Sturgeon’s comments on Friday: “Alex Salmond could be a demanding man who expected the very highest standards from those who served with or worked for him. But he was a fair man and one who led by example.
“The loyalty and respect that so many had for him was shown at both his funeral and memorial service. There many who had worked with or for him came to pay their respects and honour the man they felt privileged to work with.”
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