John Swinney was booed and called a traitor at a memorial service for Alex Salmond on Saturday.
Shouts of “traitor” and “shame on you” were directed at Mr Swinney, Scotland’s First Minister, as he arrived at St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh.
Mr Swinney faced further cries of “traitor” as he left the cathedral after the service and got into his ministerial limousine. Hundreds of Saltire-waving supporters chanted Mr Salmond’s name and applauded him from behind a barricade across the street.
The shouts at the cathedral appeared to emanate from supporters of Mr Salmond’s Alba Party, which he formed after leaving the SNP amid allegations of sexual misconduct. He was later cleared of all charges in a criminal trial.
Mr Salmond alleged at the time there was a conspiracy among senior SNP figures close to Nicola Sturgeon to imprison him, which she has vigorously denied.
At the time of his death, the former first minister was seeking “significant damages” and compensation for loss of earnings from the Scottish Government, totalling a reported £3 million.
Mr Salmond, who was first minister for seven years and led the independence campaign in the 2014 referendum, died of a heart attack aged 69 last month.
He passed away while attending a conference in North Macedonia. A private family funeral was held near his home in Strichen, Aberdeenshire, on Oct 29.
More than 500 people from across the political spectrum attended the St Andrew’s Day memorial service, including Gordon Brown, a former prime minister, and Sir David Davis, a Tory grandee.
The service was led by the Reverend Dr George J Whyte, a former principal clerk to the general assembly of the Church of Scotland and chaplain to the King.
Moira, Mr Salmond’s widow, was also among those who heard performances by The Proclaimers of their nationalist anthem Cap in Hand and Dougie MacLean’s folk ballad Caledonia.
Mr Swinney and Kate Forbes, the Deputy First Minister, attended on behalf of the SNP and the Scottish Government. However, Ms Sturgeon, Mr Salmond’s former protegee and successor, was not present.
It is understood Ms Sturgeon was not invited and instead attended the funeral of the comedian Janey Godley in Glasgow. However, she told BBC Scotland that her “thoughts are with Alex’s family and friends today”.
She described it as “a very sad day for them but one that I hope will allow them to remember Alec in the way they want to”.
Duncan Hamilton, one of Mr Salmond’s closest advisors, told the service that Mr Salmond’s success in raising the SNP from the fourth party in Scotland to “complete dominance” had been “both spectacular and unrivalled”.
However, Mr Hamilton said Mr Salmond had made “strategic mistakes” and the “most obvious” was resigning as first minister after losing the independence referendum, when he handed power over to Ms Sturgeon.
“I think that if there is one thing in his political career he would have changed, it would have been that. And I wonder how different Scotland might be today,” Mr Hamilton said.
Although he did not directly criticise Ms Sturgeon, he said Mr Salmond was “the most successful first minister Scotland has ever had”.
But he said it was “one of the great ironies” that Mr Salmond, while being “the foremost nationalist of his day”, had been “shaped by the House of Commons”.
Mr Hamilton said he had “learned to take a political punch, and return it with interest” and admitted that the tributes paid to Mr Salmond by Westminster figures such as the Prime Minister “would have meant a lot to him”.
Recalling how Mr Salmond had led the SNP to power at Holyrood in 2007, he said: “That government remains, for many Scots, the best government of the devolution era.”
Kenny MacAskill, who was justice secretary in Mr Salmond’s SNP government and later defected to the Alba Party, said independence was “his guiding light, his north star”.
He referred to Mr Salmond’s final social media post on X, formerly Twitter, in which he criticised Mr Swinney for taking part in Sir Keir Starmer’s new Council of the Nations and Regions.
Mr Salmond said: “John should have politely declined the meeting with the words ‘Scotland is a country not a county’.”
In an attack on Mr Swinney, Mr MacAskill said Mr Salmond had been “lambasting those demeaning our land and chastising those supinely allowing it to happen”.
Calling on his fellow nationalists to redouble their efforts to gain independence in the wake of Mr Salmond’s death, Mr MacAskill said that “those of us who share his dream must conclude that journey on his behalf. That’s the legacy he’d expect and the duty we owe him.”
Christina Hendry, Mr Salmond’s niece, told the service that his death was a loss that his family would “never get over”.
“But as a family, we will endeavour to continue his life’s work and the things left unfinished,” she said.
“He instilled in us a strength and it is with that strength that we will continue. Continue his legacy and continue his ambition for the independence of our nation.”
