Watch: ‘Apparatus of state turned on Alex Salmond’

Heartfelt tributes were paid to the late Alex Salmond in the Commons today. A number of politicians from across the house shared memories of the former first minister of Scotland in a series of points of order, with the SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn first to speak on the ‘most talented, formidable and consequential politician of his generation’. Scotland Secretary Ian Murray joked that the Scotland Office had brought Salmond and his wife Moira together, while Conservative John Lamont insisted that the pro-indy politician was ‘undoubtedly a giant’ in politics.

Next it was the turn of close friend and confidante of Salmond, Sir David Davis MP. ‘Very, very few people in this House change history,’ the Conservative politician began:

Most of us are moved by it rather than move it ourselves. Alex Salmond was an exception to that, as we’ve heard from all of the people, mostly his opponents, who have spoken well of him today.