Politics news

Alex Salmond, who was first minister of Scotland before Nicola Sturgeon, has been speaking in the wake of the resignation of his one-time protege.

Speaking to Kay Burley and Adam Boulton, Mr Salmond laid out who he thought would take over from Ms Sturgeon.

Four names were put to him - Kate Forbes, Humza Yousaf, John Swinney and Angus Robertson - but Mr Salmond was not overt in his support for any particular potential candidate.

"I would say it's more likely to be somebody from the new generation rather than the previous Nicola generation," he said.

Mr Salmond pointed out that, when he stood down in 2014, Ms Sturgeon was the obvious successor, which is not the case at the moment.

While they were once close allies, Ms Sturgeon and Mr Salmond fell out in recent years. 

Mr Salmond started his own pro-independence party called Alba in the wake of the disagreement.

Now, he says he would like to see a separation of the independence campaign from the SNP - as he says the day-to-day controversies of government bogged down the case for splitting the union.

The ex-leader also said that going to the Supreme Court in a bid for a new referendum was an "inexplicable" strategy.

It "is not the sort of institution which guides you" in ways to dissolve the United Kingdom, Mr Salmond said. 

Asked what Ms Sturgeon's undoing was, he said there were a "multitude" of problems, including the A9, health, education and even the deposit return scheme - which would have charged people for single-use bottles.

Mr Salmond said that the gender recognition reforms Ms Sturgeon introduced were a "major misstep" which he said "alienated many women's campaigners".

But this is a political headache that could have been dealt with through compromise, he said, and there was not a "single explanation" for her downfall.