Resignation
Statement from Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond
I am immensely proud of the
campaign which Yes Scotland fought and of the 1.6 million voters who rallied to
that cause by backing an independent Scotland.
I am also proud of the 85 per
cent turnout in the referendum and the remarkable response of all of the people
of Scotland who participated in this great constitutional debate and the manner
in which they conducted themselves.
We now have the opportunity to
hold Westminster’s feet to the fire on the “vow” that they have made to devolve
further meaningful power to Scotland. This places Scotland in a very strong
position.
I spoke to the Prime Minister
today and, although he reiterated his intention to proceed as he has outlined,
he would not commit to a second reading vote by March 27 on a Scotland Bill.
That was a clear promise laid out by Gordon Brown during the campaign. The
Prime Minister says such a vote would be meaningless. I suspect he cannot
guarantee the support of his party.
But today the point is this. The
real guardians of progress are not the politicians at Westminster, or even at
Holyrood, but the energised activism of tens of thousands of people who I
predict will refuse meekly to go back into the political shadows.
For me right now, therefore,
there is a decision as to who is best placed to lead this process forward
politically.
I believe that in this new
exciting situation, redolent with possibility, Party, Parliament and country
would benefit from new leadership.
Therefore I have told the
National Secretary of the SNP that I will not accept nomination to be a
candidate for leader at the Annual Conference in Perth on November 13-15.
After the membership ballot I
will stand down as First Minister to allow the new leader to be elected by due
Parliamentary process.
Until then I will continue to
serve as First Minister. After that I will continue to offer to serve as Member
of the Scottish Parliament for Aberdeenshire East.
It has been the privilege of my
life to serve Scotland as First Minister. But as I said often during the
referendum campaign this is not about me or the SNP. It is much more important
than that.
The position is this. We lost the
referendum vote but can still carry the political initiative. More importantly
Scotland can still emerge as the real winner.
For me, as a leader, my time is
nearly over, but for Scotland, the campaign continues and the dream shall never
die. |
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