A private donor has paid for a charter flight to repatriate Alex Salmond’s body from North Macedonia, after the Foreign Office rejected calls for the RAF to arrange the flight.
The former first minister of Scotland died suddenly of a heart attack during a lunch at a conference in the lakeside city of Ohrid on Saturday.
Some of his allies, including the Conservative MP David Davis, had been pressing for the RAF to fly his body home, which the Times reported could have cost up to £600,000, or for the Scottish government to fund a charter flight.
It is thought Salmond’s family will hold a private funeral likely to take place in Strichen, his home village in Aberdeenshire, with a public memorial service being held at a later date. John Swinney, the first minister, placed a book of condolence in the public reception area for the Scottish parliament on Monday.
Talks about repatriating his body involved Kate Forbes, Scotland’s deputy first minister, and Ian Murray, the Scotland secretary, who spoke to David Lammy, the foreign secretary. The flight is expected to leave North Macedonia on Friday, landing at Aberdeen airport.
A Scottish government spokesperson confirmed that private arrangements had been made to repatriate the body. It is thought Salmond’s family believed it would be faster to make their own arrangements than wait for government help.
“The loss of a loved one is a difficult time for any family, made more complex when they have passed away overseas,” he said. “Over the last few days the Scottish government and UK government have been engaging with Alex Salmond’s family and working closely together in accordance with their wishes, to ensure the swift and dignified repatriation of the former first minister to Scotland.
“Having explored a number of options, the family have now made arrangements for this to take place with the support of a private citizen. The Scottish government continues to engage with Mr Salmond’s family, and we stand ready to offer further advice and support, should it be required.”
Kenny MacAskill, the acting leader of Alba, told BBC Scotland that Salmond’s widow, Moira, and his family were grateful to the donor who provided the flight, who currently wants to remain anonymous.
“It brings a great deal of comfort to Moira and other members of the family to know that he will soon be home with them,” he said. “The family have asked that their privacy be respected at this time and will be making an announcement in due course about the funeral arrangements and a memorial service to honour the life of Alex Salmond.”
Mark Donfried, the director of the Academy for Cultural Diplomacy, which organised the event Salmond was speaking at, said the Alba leader collapsed suddenly while he was helping his party colleague Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, who had accompanied him on the trip, to open some tomato ketchup.
“He was full of energy and in the best of health, and we were talking about Scotland’s place in Europe,” Donfried told Times Radio on Sunday. Salmond was trying to open the ketchup, he said, “when he just kind of fell back in his chair, totally out of the blue, without warning”.
