After graduating (1978) from St Andrews University, where he joined the Scottish National Party (SNP), Salmond worked as a civil servant and in banking before being elected to the UK Parliament in 1987. He became SNP leader in 1990 and was prominent in the campaign to establish a devolved Scottish Parliament (1997). He became leader of the opposition in the first Scottish Parliament (1999), but resigned as SNP leader in 2000 following disputes within the party. From 2001 he was leader of the SNP MPs in the UK Parliament. He was re-elected as party leader in 2004 and to the Scottish Parliament in 2007, becoming First Minister of Scotland at the head of a minority SNP government. In 2011 he secured a second term when the SNP gained an absolute majority in the Scottish election. The SNP had promised a referendum on whether Scotland should become an independent country, and this took place in September 2014. Although Salmond led a vigorous campaign for a ‘yes’ vote, Scottish voters rejected independence by a margin of 10%. He subsequently resigned as First Minister and SNP leader. However, in 2015, he returned to the UK parliament and became the SNP foreign affairs spokesman at Westminster. He resigned from the SNP in August 2018 amid allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denied.