Scotland will be independent in my lifetime, says Alex Salmond

Scotland will become independent in his lifetime, Scottish first minister and Scottish National Party leader, Alex Salmond, who steps down from office next week, has said.

"I do believe Scotland will become an independent country," Mr Salmond told reporters in Bute House in Edinburgh in his penultimate press conference before he hands over power to his deputy, Nicola Sturgeon.

Salmond, however, is not leaving front-line politics, since it is now clear he will run for the Scottish National Party in next year’s House of Commons elections.

Saying that he had not made up his mind about where he would stand, Salmond said that he would serve the people of north-east Scotland for as long as they wanted him.

In recent days, there has been speculation that he would to seek to oust the Liberal Democrats’ chief secretary to the treasury, Danny Alexander in Inverness.

Equally, he could run in the Gordon constituency, which is being vacated by the long-standing Liberal Democrats MP, Malcolm Bruce, though his old Banff and Buchan Commons seat is now held by an SNP colleague.

Nicola Sturgeon will be elected by acclaim at the SNP’s conference in Perth and she will take over from Salmond as Scottish First Minister next Wednesday.

“Once-in-a-generation”

Before September’s

[ independence referendum ]

, Salmond said he believed that such opportunities only come along ‘once-in-a-generation’, though he has sought to create more room for manoeuvre since.

Questioned yesterday, he said it would be for the people to decide if they wanted to elect a party that clearly puts the holding of a referendum in an election manifesto.

Saying that he believed that there is an appetite for a referendum ‘sooner rather than later’, he went on: “It’s the people who decide whether a constitutional referendum should be held.”

However, opinion in Scotland divides on this issue, with Liberal Democrats Scottish secretary, Alistair Carmichael saying yesterday that the public wants politicians to focus on basic issues.