Private donor to pay for Alex Salmond’s body to be flown home

A member of the public views flags and floral tributes for Alex Salmond left outside the Scottish parliament building. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

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.