A journalist who led criticism of Alex Salmond’s claim that Charles Kennedy’s heart was not in the Better Together campaign has admitted his response was unjustified.
Mr Salmond made the comment while paying tribute to Mr Kennedy on the BBC on Tuesday.
He said: “In terms of the independence campaign, I don’t think his heart was in the Better Together campaign.
“His heart would have been in a pro-European campaign – that’s the campaign that Charles would have engaged in heart and soul.”
Despite also paying fulsome tribute to Mr Kennedy, Mr Salmond was heavily criticised for his comments with The Spectator’s Scottish editor Alex Massie leading the charge.
For a big man, Alex Salmond can be very small. His remarks on Charles Kennedy's death prove as much. http://t.co/Kr33WPjEBS
— alexmassie (@alexmassie) June 2, 2015
Other Twitter users also condemned Mr Salmond.
Charles was a decent man, and unlike Alex Salmond, served for his constituents and not his own ego. https://t.co/YUN4mqVB6c
Charles was a decent man, and unlike Alex Salmond, served for his constituents and not his own ego. https://t.co/YUN4mqVB6c
— MATT (@MTweeter24) June 2, 2015
In one post, MattTweets11 said: “Charles was a decent man and unlike Alex Salmond served for his constituents and not his own ego.”
It's times like this we can be grateful Nicola Sturgeon replaced Alex Salmond as First Minister of Scotland: http://t.co/y4CmJlkWbU
— Mike Dailly (@mikedailly) June 2, 2015
Labour supporter Mike Dailly, of the Govan Law Centre in Glasgow, tweeted: “It’s times like this we can be grateful Nicola Sturgeon replaced Alex Salmond as First Minister of Scotland.”
In the run-up to the vote on independence, Mr Kennedy called on the pro-union campaign to broaden its appeal.
In March last year the former party leader told the Scottish Lib Dem conference in Aberdeen that Labour had characterised the debate as being “Salmond versus Scotland”.
The outrage over Mr Salmond’s comments prompted the former First Minister to explain they had been made in response to a direct question by a BBC journalist.
He said: “First, and for the record, I have made no claim whatsoever that Charles Kennedy was either a Yes or an SNP supporter. He was not. He was a committed federalist all of his political career.
“In all of the many interviews I have conducted today, I have been generous about his political contribution, particularly on Iraq but also the role he could have played in the upcoming European campaign. That was not difficult. I liked Charles a great deal and he was quite the most generous politician I have ever met.”
Mr Salmond, who was elected as MP for Gordon in last month’s election, added: “I only mentioned the Better Together campaign at all because I was asked a direct question about it. As early as the beginning of last year, Charles was one of the first unionist politicians to realise that the result would be close and said publicly that he felt that the actions of the No campaign were contributing to this.
“Having put the record straight, I have no intention of commenting further. Except to say this. It would be really good to concentrate political comment on the role this fine man played on Iraq, on his massive achievement as leader in 2005 of securing the best Liberal result for almost a century and the key contribution he might have played on Europe but for his tragic and untimely death.”
This led Alex Massie to acknowledge his original article had been “over the top”. The journalist said on Wednesday:
Happy that @AlexSalmond has clarified his remarks re Charlie Kennedy. Happy to concede too that, given this, my piece on him y'day was OTT.
— alexmassie (@alexmassie) June 3, 2015
EDIT: The article was changed on June 3 following the admission by Alex Massie that his article had been “over the top”.