Alistair Darling: Alex Salmond praises 'formidable' referendum rival
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Alistair Darling and Alex Salmond faced off at a BBC Scotland debate in Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in August 2014
Alistair Darling has been hailed as a "formidable" yet "extremely courteous" politician by his independence referendum rival Alex Salmond.
Lord Darling, a former chancellor and head of the Better Together campaign, has died aged 70.
The ex-Edinburgh MP had been in hospital for cancer treatment.
Mr Salmond, who led the Yes side ahead of the 2014 vote, also praised Lord Darling for his leadership during the 2008 financial crisis.
He said people would be "shocked" to hear the "very sad" news and offered his condolences to the former Labour minister's family.
"He was a formidable campaigner for Better Together," Mr Salmond told BBC Scotland News. "We had some pretty intense debates of course.
"But I can honestly say about Alistair that outwith these debates we never exchanged a cross word because Alistair was an extremely courteous man."
The pair clashed in often heated exchanges in the lead up to the vote in September 2014, including a high-profile BBC debate held in Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in August.
The former first minister described the scene "seconds" the debate had ended: "When everybody in your entourage is running about briefing and all the rest of it we had a perfectly civil conversation about where we were campaigning the next day if I remember correctly.
"I liked the contrast because real politicians, proper politicians have the ability to switch on for the debate and then not to carry it forward into personal relationships and I thought that was one of Alistair's great strengths."
Mr Salmond said their exchanges when he was first minister and Lord Darling was chancellor, between 2007 and 2010, were "equally cordial, even when we disagreed".
Alistair Darling led the pro-union No campaign during the referendum
It was during this period that Lord Darling helped lead the UK's response to the 2008 financial crisis.
Mr Salmond said the former chancellor "presented exactly the right calm and authoritative image" during that time.
"The most important thing, whatever policies you're pursuing when things are really up against it, is to present a calm image that you are in charge of things even when things are at the point of total collapse," Mr Salmond told the BBC.
"And I thought that Alistair did that very well because that's the most difficult job of all - to stay calm when everybody about you is losing their heads."
Lord Darling was born in London but attended the prestigious Loretto school in Musselburgh before studying at the University of Aberdeen, graduating with a law degree.
After becoming an advocate, he entered politics in 1982 as a member of the former Lothian Regional Council.
Lord Darling served in Labour cabinets for 13 years under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown from 1997 until 2010.
Mr Brown, who appointed Lord Darling as chancellor, paid tribute to his "good friend".
The former prime minister said Lord Darling was the "obvious choice" to lead Better Together, but that he was not "desperate to do the job" and had to be "pressured" into it.
Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown worked together during the referendum campaign
"In times of crisis Alistair was the person you would want in the room because he was calm, he was considered, he had great wisdom, he had a strong sense of what was right and wrong, he had great integrity," Mr Brown told the BBC.
"He was a person you could rely and depend upon and I think we saw that not just during the financial crisis but when he chaired the Better Together campaign, which was a difficult thing to do.
"It was quite a tense time in Scottish life but I think he gained the respect not only of his supporters but of his opponents in that crisis and he came out of that as a man whose authority was held in huge esteem by everybody across the country."
Former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said the former chancellor had a "compelling intellect" and a "wicked sense of humour".
She added: "There's no doubt he's a giant of politics and such a sore and sad loss."
'Unfailingly courteous'
Nicola Sturgeon, Mr Salmond's successor as first minister and deputy during the referendum campaign, said she was shocked to hear of Lord Darling's "untimely" passing.
She said he was a "tough opponent" but "unfailingly courteous even in the height of the referendum campaign where the stakes were high and tensions and passions were always running high".
Ms Sturgeon recalled being in the "spin room" during the first leaders' debate of the independence referendum.
"It was probably one of the most uncomfortable if not the most uncomfortable experiences of that type I've ever had in my political career because he was demonstrating that calm ability using detail just to shoot the holes in the argument as he saw it," she said.