NICOLA Sturgeon's worst quality is that she is far too timid on independence, Alex Salmond has said.

The former first minister said there is a "severe danger" that SNP politicians are now behind popular opinion, instead of ahead of it as they were in 2014 under his leadership. 

Speaking to foreign journalists, he said Ms Sturgeon's greatest strength is her communication skills and called her a "first-rate politician". 

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However, he also said that neither Scotland nor the wider UK had dealt well with the pandemic in international terms. 

Mr Salmond made the comments during a virtual briefing with members of the Foreign Press Association.

The SNP is due to launch its manifesto today ahead of the Holyrood election on May 6, where it hopes to gain a majority for a second referendum.

Mr Salmond told journalists he expected his Alba Party to become the third largest party in Scotland in terms of membership by the end of the election campaign, after Labour and the SNP. 

Alba now has almost 5,000 members, he said.

During a lengthy Q&A session, Mr Salmond was asked about Ms Sturgeon's best and worst qualities. 

He said: "In terms of Nicola's strengths, I would say her communication skills are exceptional. Nicola is a first-rate politician. 

"If you compare Nicola Sturgeon and Boris Johnson during the course of the pandemic, then the policy programme of how to cope with coronavirus has been roughly the same in Scotland as in the UK, and the results have been comparable as well. 

"You would say that neither Scotland nor the UK in international terms has dealt well with the virus and the pandemic. 

"But both Scotland and the UK have had a very strong record on the vaccination programme in comparison with other countries. 

"The policy programmes have been similar, but it's been certainly much better expressed in Scotland through Nicola Sturgeon's communication skills than it has in the UK, where Boris Johnson struggles in many ways to put forward a rational argument that people believe or understand. 

"So I say her communication skills are her greatest strength. 

"In terms of weakness, I think she's far, far too – she's too timid on the independence question.

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"I think, if we go back to 2014, then there's an argument that in many ways in the run up to 2014 that the politicians – my leadership, the SNP, the Scottish Parliament at that time – were in advance of popular opinion, in terms of progressing the independence case.

"In 2021, there's a severe danger that the politicians are behind popular opinion – that they are the leaders, but following the people reluctantly at a period of time.

"The caution on independence I think would be something that – certainly, people will judge in this election whether they think Alba has a role in injecting more urgency into the independence question."