Calum Ross
Alex Salmond’s return to Westminster was officially confirmed yesterday as the former first minister was sworn in as MP.
The newly-elected Gordon representative said he wanted to swear the oath of allegiance “in the Scottish manner”, raising his hand as he read the traditional statement.
The former SNP leader was sworn in before any of the other 55 Nationalist MPs because he is a member of the Privy Council.
Mr Salmond chatted to former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg as he waited to be called, as well as Labour veterans Diane Abbott and Kate Hoey.
It was his first business in the Commons chamber since he stood down as MP for Banff and Buchan in 2010.
Angus Robertson, the Moray MP and SNP Westminster leader, was also sworn in yesterday, as was Western Isles MP Angus MacNeil, who did it three times – in English, Gaelic and Irish Gaelic.
Orkney and Shetland MP Alistair Carmichael, the only remaining Scottish Lib Dem representative at Westminster in the wake of the election, was among the others to be confirmed as an MP yesterday.
The former Scottish secretary stood next to Mr Clegg as he waited to be called, and raised his hand to give the oath in the same way as Mr Salmond.
Ed Miliband arrived during the proceedings, his first public appearance at Westminster since being defeated in the election and quitting as Labour leader.
He jumped the queue, in front of Mr Salmond, but shook hands and chatted with Mr Clegg and Mr Carmichael.
Prime Minister David Cameron and his Conservative Cabinet, including new Scottish secretary David Mundell, were the first to be sworn in as MPs after Speaker John Bercow yesterday.
They were followed by the Labour shadow ministerial team.
Newly elected MPs are expected to go through the process today, tomorrow and Tuesday.
In the background to the pageantry of a state occasion, meanwhile, a turf war between Labour and SNP MPs continued on the opposition benches.
Nationalist MP Pete Wishart sat on the Labour front bench, behind the Despatch Box and next to senior figures such as Hilary Benn, the shadow foreign secretary, and Rose Winterton, the Labour chief whip.
It followed a similar move by several SNP MPs during the re-election of Speaker John Bercow on Tuesday, in what is believed to be a retaliation for Labour members such as Dennis Skinner and Sir Gerald Kaufman refusing to vacate the adjacent front bench, which the Nationalists believe they are entitled to as the third biggest party at Westminster.