Except translation, this story has not been edited by achinews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.
At the time he was Ms Sturgeon’s deputy.
READ MORE
While the UK voted 52% to 48% to leave the UK, Scotland voted 62% to 38% to remain.
Mr Sturgeon wrote a speech in which he said a second independence referendum was now “on the table.”
Mr Swinney told the documentary: “And I can remember saying to Nicola as she formulated the message she was going to deliver following the Brexit referendum – was she sure she wanted to say so firmly that she opens a dialogue for a further referendum.”
He continued: “I have to say I was nervous, because I was still worried about how we were going to mobilize people in Scotland when we had just had one (referendum) in 2014.”
Mr Swinney’s comments came in an interview for Salmond and Sturgeon: A Troubled Union, a new documentary looking at the growth of the SNP and the fallout between its two most successful leaders.
(Image: PA)
The show features a host of interviews with senior officials, including the last four prime ministers and many of their aides.
Other revelations include Alex Salmond telling Nicola Sturgeon in 2014 that her husband, Peter Murrell, should resign as SNP chief executive.
He told the show: “After I stood down as leader, I thought it was my job to tell Nicola first and then Peter I thought the combination between her as prime minister and Peter as the chief executive was going to cause great difficulty, not necessarily when things were going well, but as soon as things went bad.
“It was going to be a relationship that the press would exploit.”
Ms Sturgeon said she “took a different view.”
“Peter had done the job as Chief Executive much longer than, you know, long before I became First Minister.
“I think if the gender roles had been reversed, and the idea that a woman had to give up her job because of their spouse’s role, that would have looked odd.”
Mr Murrell was forced to quit last year in a row over party membership numbers. Earlier this year he was accused of embezzling party funds.
The show also reveals that a number of senior party officials blamed Salmond’s comments about Nato’s action in Kosovo in 1999 for their poor result in the first Holyrood election.
Mr Salmond said the military action was “an act of dubious legality, but, above all, unforgivable folly”.
“The language was language that I thought was not appropriate, not correct. I just thought, Oh, this is the last thing we need right now. And the response was terrible,” John Swinney told the programme-makers.
“The few days after that were very difficult,” Ms Sturgeon said. “I certainly felt that any outside chance of me winning Govan had probably evaporated.”
In the end, she lost to Labour’s Gordon Jackson, but was returned to Holyrood on the list.
“Looking back, I think I was right,” said Mr Salmond, “But at the time, it wasn’t the most convenient thing to say, as you start the Scottish election campaign.”
Mr Salmond also criticized the team around Nicola Sturgeon during her time as First Minister, saying he did not “rate them highly”.
Mr Sturgeon said her relationship with Mr Salmond had suddenly changed following the 2017 general election when he lost his Gordon seat to the Tories.
“He didn’t take my call for two weeks afterwards,” she said. “Suddenly I felt like he was deliberately rejecting me and punishing me for whatever he thought I had done wrong.”
The first episode of A Troubled Union will be broadcast on BBC Scotland at 10pm on Tuesday.
The second episode will be broadcast at the same time on Wednesday and will cover the criminal case against Mr Salmond, where he was dismissed for sexual assault.
(Except translation, this story has not been edited by achinews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
source link https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/24570091.senior-snp-figures-tell-explosive-bbc-documentary/?ref=rss
