Charles should stay away during republic referendum, says Scottish Alba leader Alex Salmond

The Scottish Alba leader says that it would be improper for him to be in Australia at the time of any future Australian referendum on independence.

Scottish Alba leader Alex Salmond headed the independence movement when he was the leader of the Scottish Nationalist party and First Minister of Scotland. Picture: Getty Images

The Scottish Alba leader Alex Salmond says that it would be improper for King Charles III to be in Australia at the time of any future Australian referendum on independence.

Mr Salmond drew parallels between the aspirations of the Anthony Albanese government and Scotland’s push for an independence referendum, and said the monarchy had to remain on the sidelines respecting the difference between the Union of the parliament and the Union of the Crowns and allow the people a free voice in any contest.

Mr Salmond, headed the independence movement when he was the leader of the Scottish Nationalist party and First Minister of Scotland, claimed that the late Queen Elizabeth “didn’t interfere, quite properly, in the democratic decisions of any of her peoples, in Australia or in Scotland”. He added: “If Australia has another referendum, I am sure King Charles shouldn’t be in Australia saying ‘pick me’, because it is a decision for the people.’’

Britain's King Charles III walks behind the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II. Picture: AFP

Mr Salmond told a gathering of the Foreign Press Association on Wednesday that Queen Elizabeth had told him that she had given the then British prime minister David Cameron “a set of six”, a euphemism for a dressing down, after Mr Cameron had claimed Her Majesty had “purred down the line” when the 2014 Scottish independence failed.

“David Cameron was in conversation with Michael Bloomberg in New York a week after the referendum, said Her Majesty was cunning. Cunning! I was summoned to Balmoral following week and told in no uncertain terms Mr Cameron had no right to speak like that, and she was not somebody who purred, and there would be no circumstance when she spoke in that way and he deserved six of the best,’’ Mr Salmond recalled.

“Her majesty was not amused by David Cameron’s remarks”.

He further insisted that the Queen didn’t intervene on the eve of the referendum when she told a well wisher to think carefully when making the decision. He said that pro-union interpretation of that remark was instead the work of “the unionist press”.

“I don’t accept Queen intervened in the Scottish referendum, that was the unionist press,’’ Mr Salmond said.

The Supreme Court is currently hearing arguments as to why a fresh Scottish referendum should be held. If the case, brought by the Scottish government fails, then Mr Salmond said he would support a plebiscite if all the pro-independence parties: the Scottish nationalists, his Alba party and the Scottish greens, combined to form a Scotland United option. Otherwise he warned, any election would become bogged down in other domestic issues.

He said it was time for another independence referendum because of Brexit, which most of Scotland opposed.

Mr Salmond has been consistently critical of Australia’s prime minister Tony Abbott who made headlines with his pre-referendum comments eight years ago and once again this week referred to him as making ‘’ill-advised’’ comments, noting how he was soon ousted by “a Turnbull, a strong Scottish name’’.

At the time Mr Abbott had been particularly outspoken of all the world leaders, saying “it’s hard to see how the world would be helped by an independent Scotland. I think that the people who would like to see the break-up of the United Kingdom are not the friends of justice, not the friends of freedom, and that the countries that would cheer at the prospect of the break-up with the United Kingdom are not the countries whose company one would like to keep.”

Mr Salmond said the while the UK government was “crumbling and pathetic”, Scotland was ready for independence, but like Australia the type of republic that would be constituted is less clear. His Alba party desires to be free of the monarchy, but other pro-independence parties would like to keep a monarchy with their own Crown.

He said it has been “impolite” to suggest replacing the head of state while the Queen was alive, but said ‘’we are now in a different situation.’’

He added Scotland still wanted to be part of the Commonwealth, but whether the monarchy will be involved in setting up any new state ‘’will be addressed in Australia and elsewhere’’.