ALEX Salmond was touted as a potential candidate for deputy prime minister in the UK Government after the 2014 independence referendum, according to Alastair Campbell's diaries.

The revelations come in a serialisation of extracts from Campbell's diaries from 2010 to 2015, which exposes the turmoil behind the scenes of the campaign to keep Scotland in the UK.

The idea for Salmond's Westminster role was said to have come from one of his former aides in 2015, shortly after he announced he was running for a seat at Westminster.

READ MORE: Former diplomat loses contempt of court case over reports of Alex Salmond trial

Salmond stood down as First Minister after the referendum but still held the Aberdeenshire East constituency seat in Holyrood.

At the time, it was thought that an SNP landslide in Scotland could be key to Ed Miliband's victory in beating the Tory-LibDem Westminster Government.

Campbell, Tony Blair's former spin chief, discussed Salmond's potential role as deputy PM at a dinner with Aberdeen Asset boss Sir Martin Gilbert and former Salmond aide Geoff Aberdein.

In a diary entry from February 4 2015, Aberdein said: “Alex really likes you.”

Campbell wrote: “He said Nicola [Sturgeon] would be having mixed feelings re. Alex being in Westminster. But as the evening wore on – and he mentioned a couple of times that he had been speaking to Alex today – he raised directly the idea of Salmond as DPM in a Labour coalition government.

“After the Q&A with Martin, during which I said I felt Labour could win – and said why – Geoff said you don’t believe that, you know he can’t win a majority, but he might do it with Alex in there as No. 2. I said I would try to sus it out.”

A book on the diaries is due to be published this month, but the extracts have been obtained by DCT Media, and published in the Dundee Courier and Aberdeen Press & Journal.

Campbell said he always thought Scotland would vote No to independence but said David Cameron’s actions since then meant Scots would vote Yes in indyref2.

He went on discuss his fondness for Sturgeon and deputy first minister John Swinney, adding: "Trouble was we painted them as awful and even though nationalism might be, they are not."

The National reported last week that Salmond offered him a place on his “negotiating team” in the event of Scotland becoming independent.

He said that offer was made during a meeting at the Marcliffe Hotel in Aberdeen, where he was interviewing Salmond for GQ magazine.

But he observed Salmond’s book was “getting panned” and thought he was “over-reaching” with claims he could hold the balance of power at Westminster.

READ MORE: Is former Tony Blair spin chief Alastair Campbell on a No to Yes journey?

The Conservatives went on to campaign with graphics of Miliband in Salmond’s pocket, in what was seen as an attempt to steer voters in England away from Labour.

At the election in May 2015, the Conservatives won a majority, Miliband was out, and the SNP took nearly every seat in Scotland.

It comes as Campbell warned last week that Boris Johnson will “break the Union”.

After being a “full-on” No campaigner ahead of the Scottish independence referendum in 2014, he said he is now “less certain”.

He said he was more impressed with Salmond than he wanted to be.

“He was very friendly and warm and also less sneery and narky than usual,” said Campbell.

“He was interesting for the book as well on winning and how he had changed his mind-set from one of opposition to one of government.

“He had read my blogs, knew about my family, talked up my being Scottish, asked me to stay for a long lunch and then most surprisingly of all asked me to be part of the negotiating team with the rest of the UK, Europe etc if he won.

“He seemed quite serious too.

“He said if they got independence he would want to reach out to people like me, and use the skills I had in government, and also nation branding.”

Campbell added: “He clearly didn’t rate [David] Cameron. Loathed [George] Osborne. Not impressed by Ed [Miliband].

“My sense was he really thought he could win.”

In the GQ interview Salmond made some comments appearing to approve of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, as well as some “loose” remarks on Scotland’s reputation with alcohol.

They caused a storm when the interview was published and Salmond later defended what he had said about Putin restoring pride in Russia.

“I said I deprecated Russian actions in Ukraine and also its human rights record,” he said. “I pointed out that the Western press underestimated Putin and that’s obviously true.”

However, Campbell said the “furore” had no impact on the job Salmond offered him, as he wrote in a May 5 entry: “Meanwhile Labour and the Better Together people were loving it because it had him on the back foot for the first time in ages.

“He had asked me to be part of his negotiation team if he won, and one of his people told me that was a serious proposition, and the furore did not change that. ‘If anything it makes him keener, because it shows you can still get a message up, even at his expense’.”