ALEX Salmond has claimed Nicola Sturgeon cuts a “sad” and diminished figure while trying to sell tickets for his Edinburgh Fringe show.

The former First Minister turned Alba party leader held out an olive branch to his estranged predecessor earlier this week, saying “never say never” about a reconciliation.

However Ms Sturgeon brutally dismissed the idea in an interview on Wednesday, saying Mr Salmond was “not somebody I want in my life”.

Speaking to broadcaster Iain Dale’s All Talk show on the Fringe, she said: “We don’t have long on this planet, we’ve got a limited amount of time to spend with people. 

“I want to spend the time I have with people who make me happy and who I like and who I enjoy spending time with.”

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon says Alex Salmond 'not somebody I want in my life'

Appearing with former Brexit Secretary David Davis on ITV’s Good Morning Britain to promote their debating show The Ayes Have It, Mr Salmond was asked how it felt to know Ms Sturgeon had “shut the door” on a decades long working relationship.

He said: “It is sad. I saw Nicola’s interview and she does cut a sad, almost reduced figure. 

“But the reality is she led independence into a cul-de-sac, she’s left her successor with a difficult, almost impossible legacy, and she’s under police investigation.

“I don’t know who’s advising Nicola at the moment - if anyone - but I’d have thought a period of silence might be a good policy. But it is very sad.”

The two former SNP leaders fell out after disputed claims of sexual misconduct were levelled against Mr Salmond by civil servants in 2018.

He then won a legal action against Ms Sturgeon’s government after it bungled an in-house probe into the matter, proving it had been unfair, unlawful and tainted by apparent bias.

In a later Holyrood inquiry, he accused senior SNP figures, including then chief executive Peter Murrell, Ms Sturgeon’s husband, of trying to ruin him and even have him jailed.

Ms Sturgeon became deputy leader of the SNP to Mr Salmond in 2004, then served as his deputy First Minister from 2007 until he quit after the No result in the 2014 referendum.

The pair have not spoken since the sexual misconduct claims emerged - which ultimately led to a trial at which Mr Salmond was cleared of all charges.

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon says she has 'faith' in police probe into SNP cash

On the eve of the 2021 Holyrood election, Mr Salmond launched his Alba party with the ostensible aim of uniting Scotland's independence parties.

However he has consistently used Alba to criticise the SNP’s lack of progress on independence and SNP-Green policies such as gender recognition reform.

This week he called Scottish Green co-leader Patrick Harvie a “total idiot” at a thinly-attended performance of his show.

In her Fringe appearance, Ms Sturgeon ruled out ever making a comeback as FM.

Without naming Mr Salmond, she said: “There’s something really sad about somebody who has done the kind of job I’ve done and then leaves the stage… I just don’t want to be the kind of former leader who’s always exuding this sense of ‘I just wish I was back in the job’.”

The continued public spat is a headache for Humza Yousaf as he tries to put his own stamp on the SNP and the Scottish Government.

He is also having to deal with Police Scotland's two-year investigation into whether £660,000 raised by the SNP for Indyref2 was misspent.

The Western Isles MP Angus MacNeil was last night expelled by the SNP for indiscipline and is now sitting in the Commons as an Independent.

The First Minister is due to make his second Fringe appearance this afternoon.