Scottish First Minister quits after Scots vote No

He will also resign as leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), which he has led for a total of 20 years. Scottish voters backed the country staying in the UK by 2,001,926 votes to 1,617,989 in Thursday's referendum.

He announced on Friday that he would resign as SNP leader at the party's conference in November, before standing down as first minister when the party elects its next leader in a membership ballot.

Mr Salmond told journalists there were a "number of eminently qualified and very suitable candidates" to replace him, with his deputy, Nicola Sturgeon, seen as a clear favourite. He will stay on as MSP for Aberdeenshire East, and described serving Scotland as first minister as the "privilege of my life".

The big question for the nationalists is how they pick themselves up from Thursday's referendum defeat, but will take some solace from the fact that 45% of voters backed them, including many supporters of other parties. Scottish Labour will also be seeking to make ground on the SNP after helping to win a "No" vote on Thursday. Mr Brown has been credited in some quarters with helping to stall the "Yes" surge in the latter stages of the campaign. He has even hinted he might stand to become a Labour MSP at the Scottish Parliament. He is due to speak in Dalgety Bay later about the importance of national unity following the heated referendum campaign.

Meanwhile, Labour leader Ed Miliband is due to arrive in Manchester ahead of the Labour conference, where delegates will be chewing over the referendum outcome. Mr Miliband has made it clear that he is not likely to sign up to Prime Minister David Cameron's proposals to give new powers to English MPs.

The prime minister is proposing a system where only MPs from England would vote on English issues in Parliament. He has also said the three main Westminster parties will deliver their campaign pledge to boost the powers of Scotland's devolved parliament, according to BBC.