WESTMINSTER should be shut down and turned into a museum according to Alex Salmond.
The former First Minister said the old building is wonderful, but is not fit for purpose and doesn’t merit the proposed £6bn spending for refurbishment.
He said he is enjoying his second stint at the United Kingdom Parliament he came so close to breaking up and warned the Tories face troubled times ahead from his new troops.
On his return he sees similarities in the political climate between now and the parliaments of the 1990s and warned the Tories their majority cannot be guaranteed.
Mr Salmond admits to enjoying the House of Commons second time around but he says it should be somewhere else.
Speaking in the grandeur of the Palace of Westminster Pugin dining room, Mr Salmond said while it is a beautiful building it is no longer suitable as a working parliament.
He said: “I’m having a great time.
“It is a wonderful building but it will cost £6bn to refurbish, compare that to the £400m to build the Scottish Parliament.”
“It’s not suitable as a working parliament. It should be a museum. Turn it into a museum and build a new parliament in Newcastle or somewhere.
“It will probably go on the road if this place is refurbished, going round England and it should come to Scotland too.”
Mr Salmond was first elected to Westminster in 1987 as MP for Banff and Buchan aged 32.
Now back at Westminster after a seven and a half year stint leading the Scottish Government, making him the longest serving First Minister, he is relishing the challenge of taking on the Tories in their backyard.
He said he is confident the group of 56 is well equipped for the task ahead.
He said: “When I was down here originally we had to run around and look like a crowd. Now we are a crowd.
“It’s a great pleasure actually. This is probably the most talented group of Members of Parliament I’ve ever seen. In terms of the range of backgrounds it’s extraordinary talented from diverse backgrounds and they will make a huge impact.”
He puts that down to the decision to allow the tens of thousands of new members following the referendum the opportunity to stand, waiving the usual party rules about length of membership.
Mr Salmond first entered Parliament as Margaret Thatcher won her third and final election and he was re-elected five years later when John Major surprised Neil Kinnock and the opinion polls by holding on to power.
He said the problems that plagued John Major from within his party are evident once more decades later.
Mr Salmond said: “There are some aspects that are quite familiar to me, like a Tory majority Government. I was here during the last Tory majority government and in some ways I see similarities between the government of John Major and the majority government of David Cameron.
"Both were elected surprisingly against expectation, on a narrow victory and some other things that happened to Major I think will certainly happen to Cameron.”
An experienced and wily political operator, Mr Salmond is ready to capitalise on that weakness.
He added: “It’s already happening, there have been four issues where the SNP have been instrumental in forcing the Government's hand, now they are not issues that are central to our ambitions but nonetheless important.
“There was the Human Rights Act and English votes for English laws has been withdrawn at this stage because they couldn’t guarantee a majority, so it’s been kicked back to the autumn.
“They had to concede on having the referendum on Europe on the same day as the Scottish Parliament elections, so that’s gone for a burton and they’ve had to pull the hunting vote.”
He admits they are not the most fundamental issues or the SNP’s absolute priorities but the SNP is laying down a marker that it must be reckoned with and is making it known.
He added: “These issues are relevant, but they’re not central. They indicate this government cannot guarantee its majority and that’s what happened to John Major of course.”
He identifies a group of around 30 Tory rebels from which various permutations could defeat the government.
Mr Salmond said: “The groups change from issue to issue, in the Human Rights Act the rebels were led by David Davis who has a long standing conviction they shouldn’t be messing around with human rights.
“On other issues the anti European Tories are instrumental for example in forcing them to concede on the same day referendum issue.”
Evel, he said, was a shambles and the decision to vote on fox hunting in England, a u-turn on SNP policy, was a reminder to the government after it ignored appeals on the Scotland Bill it has to deal with the SNP.
He said: “If you turn down 40 amendments all bets are off.
“Parliament is going to get very tight. We will decide on issues as they come up.
“Some Tories get upset about not being able to hunt foxes. They like nothing better than a weekend hunting animals. That’s their idea of fun.
“We get up upset about austerity and cuts to working tax credits, not about hunting.”
The day after the fox hunting vote was withdrawn to avoid defeat a SNP colleague tells how Mr Salmond relished the moment.
He walked into the Commons chamber with a nod to the Tory benches and a greeting of ‘Tally-ho!, gents’.
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