First Minister John Swinney has revealed he tried to discourage Nicola Sturgeon from calling for a second independence referendum in the wake of the Brexit vote.
Ms Sturgeon said a fresh vote on independence was “highly likely” after the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016.
But Mr Swinney says he was “nervous” about the plan and trying to motivate Scots who had just voted in a referendum in 2014.
The Perthshire MSP made the frank admission in a BBC documentary, airing on Tuesday, chronicling the breakdown of Alex Salmond and Ms Sturgeon’s relationship.
Salmond and Sturgeon: A Troubled Union features insights from figures at the top of the SNP and Scottish politics over the last four decades.
It examines their tenure in the party during its rise to become the dominant political force north of the border – and ultimately how they became irreconcilably split.
‘I have to say I was nervous’
Part of the documentary looks at the aftermath of the Brexit referendum in 2016.
Ms Sturgeon was leader of the party, with Mr Swinney as her deputy.
But eight years later, he told the documentary: “I can remember saying to Nicola as she was formulating the message she was going to convey in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum – was she sure that she wanted to say so firmly that she was opening up dialogue about a further referendum.”
He continued: “I have to say I was nervous, because I was still concerned by how we were able to motivate people in Scotland when we had just had one (a referendum) in 2014.”
Mr Salmond said Ms Sturgeon’s post-Brexit strategy had led the independence movement “up the hill and then marched down again” – saying it had failed to deliver a second independence referendum.
Reflecting on the post-Brexit period, Ms Sturgeon said there was a lot of debate in her core team about the best way forward – saying Mr Salmond was initially “gung ho” for another independence referendum before going in the other direction.
She said her relationship with her former mentor changed suddenly in the wake of the 2017 general election, when Mr Salmond lost his seat at Westminster.
She said: “He didn’t take my call for two weeks afterwards …
“Suddenly I felt he was very deliberately rejecting me and punishing me for whatever he thought I had got wrong.”
The first episode of Salmond and Sturgeon: 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.
Conversation