Alex Salmond bids to return to House of Commons

Former Scottish National Party leader and first minister Alex Salmond is to bid to return to the House of Commons, saying that the prospect of a hung parliament offers Scotland negotiating power.

His decision to run in the Gordon constituency in Aberdeenshire – where he lives with his wife, Moira – is not a surprise.

“The opportunity exists for Scotland to emerge from next year’s election in a commanding position,” he declared. “It is incumbent on all of us to step up to the plate.”

Voters in Aberdeenshire overwhelmingly rejected the Scottish independence referendum, but Mr Salmond, nevertheless, is regarded as the hot favourite to win. The seat is held by long-standing Liberal Democrat MP Sir Malcolm Bruce, but he is stepping down next May.

Pre-referendum promises

Mr Salmond’s pitch to voters, both Yes and No, is simple. He argues he can help to ensure pre-referendum commitments are “redeemed”.

Scotland was promised “near-federalism” by former Labour prime minister, Gordon Brown. Before the September 18th vote, he said: “What is on offer now doesn’t come close to that.” He continued: “Westminster will only deliver to Scotland what they are forced to do. Perhaps it is time to use the Westminster elections to apply that pressure.”

Ridiculing Mr Brown, Mr Salmond said: “It is also clear that the man who said he would stand as guarantor of that near-federalism has now ridden off into the political sunset, leaving us with a showdown with the three Westminster amigos [David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg].”

Political permutations

Ruling out any coalition union with the Conservatives, Mr Salmond did not rule out “other permutations”, including supporting Labour – for a price.

Labour expects to lose some of its 41 seats in Scotland. The question is how many. Yesterday, Mr Salmond downplayed SNP expectations. Privately, it believes it could win dozens of seats. An Ipsos-MORI poll reported the SNP could go from having six Commons seats to 54.

Sir Bruce has a 7,000 majority in Gordon, but the Liberal Democrats, badly wounded in Scotland, will struggle to fend off Mr Salmond’s ambitions.