The Alba Party will seek to continue Alex Salmond’s legacy, its acting leader and a lifelong friend of the former first minister has said.

Mr Salmond died suddenly on Saturday at a conference in North Macedonia, shocking the political world in the UK.

Tributes poured in over the weekend to the former first minister, who led the SNP in the 1990s and again between 2004 and 2014 – when he took the party into government for the first time.

A book of condolence for Mr Salmond opened at the Scottish Parliament on Monday for visitors to leave messages, which will be sent to his family.

While First Minister John Swinney tabled a motion of condolence in Holyrood – supported by Alba Party Holyrood leader Ash Regan – where he praised Mr Salmond’s “substantial and significant contribution that he made over many decades to public life”.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland on Monday, Kenny MacAskill – who served in Salmond’s cabinet and defected with him to his new party in 2021 – said Alba would continue.

“Of course, the party continues, we owe it to Alex, ” he said.

“It was never the Alex Salmond party, it was Alex Salmond’s inspiration and Alex Salmond’s driving force, but the party is made up of thousands more and, as I say, that legacy will continue.”

Writing to Alba Party members on Monday, Mr MacAskill paraphrased Mr Salmond’s resignation speech, saying: “The dream he cherished so closely and came so close to delivering will never die. We will honour him.”

In his later years, Mr Salmond was locked in a legal battle with the government he formerly led, winning more than £500,000 in court after it was found an investigation into harassment complaints against him was “tainted by apparent bias”.

In November 2023, Mr Salmond announced he would be taking further action, warning a “day of reckoning” for the Scottish Government was coming as he named former first minister – and political protegee – Nicola Sturgeon and ex-permanent secretary Leslie Evans in the case, accusing both of “misfeasance”.

At the time the case was launched, then-first minister Humza Yousaf said the Government would defend itself “robustly”.

That action could continue if his family took the decision it should, Mr MacAskill said, a move he would support.

“It’s a matter for the family to decide,” he said.

“My own position is that I will respect whatever the family decide, but I would certainly hope and I believe that they are likely to continue this, because that court case will expose, I believe, malfeasance amongst individuals and institutions that really has to be brought out to allow history to properly remember Alex Salmond.”

While Sir David Davis, a Conservative MP and close friend of Mr Salmond, told the same programme he wanted to “open up this whole issue”, adding that the Scottish Parliament should be given powers of privilege to allow it to investigate without fear of prosecution.

The legal issues in the latter years of Mr Salmond’s life – which saw him cleared in the High Court of a number of sexual offences including attempted rape – had “put a huge pall over the last several years of this great man’s life and, who knows, it might even have accelerated his death, I don’t know, I can’t comment on that”, he said.

“I want to see this exposed, so that the Scottish Government is forced to answer questions on this matter,” he added.

Sir David has also pushed the Foreign Office to use RAF planes to repatriate Mr Salmond’s body with “both dignity and expedition”.

“They’ve been listening,” he said of the Government.

“But I know there are practicalities, there aren’t just aircraft sitting on a runway ready to take off.

“But they’re working on making it happen one way or another, whether it’s an RAF flight or a civil flight.”

A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: “We are providing consular support to the family of Alex Salmond following his death in North Macedonia, and are in contact with the local authorities and Scottish Government.”