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As leader of the SNP, Alex Salmond tried to boldly go where none of his predecessors had gone before and win independence for Scotland. But the former First Minister overreached himself when he booked on to a British Airways flight as Star Trek’s James T. Kirk, captain of the starship Enterprise. Mr Salmond faced embarrassment when BA flatly refused to let him on the plane at Heathrow because the name on his ticket – belonging to the character played by William Shatner in the seminal science-fiction series – didn’t match that in his passport. Only a series of frantic calls...

Ed Miliband was branded the SNP's poodle yesterday – as Alex Salmond boasted he would install the Labour leader in No10. In a second pink champagne-fuelled interview in consecutive days, the former SNP leader pledged to 'lock David Cameron out of Downing Street' if the election produces a hung parliament. Mr Salmond said the SNP would back Labour regardless of any formal deal, but said his party would make 'progressive amendments' to the Budget and other legislation – code for higher taxes and Left-wing policies. The Prime Minister seized on the comments in the Commons, describing Mr Miliband as 'Alex...

Alex Salmond has left the Scottish Nationalists in turmoil after announcing he is to resign as First Minister and SNP leader only hours their decisive defeat in the independence referendum. Mr Salmond said his party, the Edinburgh parliament and Scotland would “benefit from new leadership” after voters rejected by a margin of 55 per cent to 45 per cent his plan to leave the UK.

Alex Salmond this afternoon dramatically quit as Scotland's First Minister after voters rejected independence in yesterday's referendum. The First Minister said he would stand down in November to let the next generation take over the fight to lead Scotland out of the Union. Mr Salmond announced his departure at a press conference this afternoon. He said his 'party, Parliament and country' would benefit from 'new leadership'. But he fired a warning shot at David Cameron not to go back on his promise to transfer sweeping new powers to Holyrood within six months.

Alex Salmond’s independence blueprint aims to attract thousands more immigrants, who could use Scotland as a back door to England. The Scottish National Party say they would ’celebrate’ more people arriving from overseas, reversing what they claim is years of ’depopulation’. Mr Salmond says Scotland needs an extra 24,000 immigrants a year to fill jobs and bankroll the welfare system for ageing Scots, but without tough border controls many could use it as an easy route into England and Wales.

Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond said today that while America ''didn't want'' Abdelbaset al-Megrahi to be released, they would rather see him freed on account of his terminal cancer, than under the prisoner transfer agreement between the UK and Libya

A radical Muslim cleric alleged to have inspired the Fort Hood gunman has been praised in the past as “a preacher of peace” by a prominent SNP candidate with close links to Alex Salmond. The FBI is investigating communications between Major Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people at the US Army base in Texas, and Imam Anwar al-Awlaki, a US-born Muslim cleric now based in Yemen. Mr Awlaki has a large following in Britain and counts prominent mainstream Muslims among his supporters. In 2006 Osama Saeed, who has been selected as the SNP candidate for Glasgow Central for the next...

Scotland’s government faces a fight for its survival as the furore over its decision to free the Lockerbie bomber escalated last night. Opposition parties north of the Border are preparing to hold a confidence vote over the decision by Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Secretary, to free Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi. Alex Salmond, the First Minister, has confirmed that he would resign if the Holyrood vote went against him. The development comes after a weekend of fierce criticism from the United States of the decision on the ground of compassion to return al-Megrahi to Libya, where he was fêted as...