Nigel Farage's BBC Scotland Interview: Full Transcript

Nigel Farage hung up the phone on BBC Scotland interviewer David Miller after a tense interview discussing his turbulent appearance in Edinburgh.

After abruptly terminating the Good Morning Scotland interview, Farage complained of the "insulting and unpleasant" questions posed by Miller, who suggested that Ukip were a "political irrelevance" in Scotland with an "alien political philosophy".

During the short exchange, Farage said the protest that torpedoed his visit to Edinburgh was "deeply racist" and condemned the "ugly face" of Scottish nationalism.

Here is the full transcript of the interview...

Miller: Can you give us your reaction to last night's events?

Farage: I've never seen the like of it before anywhere. The idea that Ukip is some sort of horrible, nasty, anti-immigrant, racist party is not something that has permeated the rest of the country, but of course that wasn't what it was really all about.

It was a demonstration, dressed up as being anti-racism, but in fact in itself it was deeply racist, with a total hatred of the English and a desire for Scotland to be independent from Westminster, and my goodness me, if this is the face of Scottish nationalism, it's a pretty ugly face.

This is a hugely objectionable point you're making isn't it? Suggesting that anti-English racism is somehow conflated with the campaign for a 'yes' vote in the forthcoming independence referendum?

Oh no, no, no, no, please believe me the anger, the hatred, the snarling, the shouting, the swearing was all linked in to a desire for the Union Jack to be burned and extinguished from Scotland forever. There's absolutely no doubt who these people were or what they stood for and...

But Mr Farage, I'm sorry to interrupt but you are confusing two quite separate things - anti-English prejudice, which we may or may not have seen on the Royal Mile yesterday, and the perfectly legitimate political debate which is under way here in Scotland and the campaign for a 'yes' vote in the independence referendum.

Well if, you know, I'm sorry but I don't think that is the way that normal, legitimate political debate takes place. Normally you at least do the courtesy of listening to somebody else and, I must say, I have heard before that there are some parts of Scottish nationalism that are akin to facism but yesterday I saw it face to face.

Looking at the television pictures, listening to the television feed again this morning, when you put it to the crowd on the pavement on the Royal Mile that they were being anti-English, they denied that, they reacted very strongly against it.

Either the Scottish press are going to start reporting the truth about some of the extremes of the independence movement here or not, but it's about time they did.

Ok, let's leave the demonstration to one side, because I want to put it to you that it was in fact a rather convenient distraction from the political reality for Ukip in Scotland, which is rather gloomy isn't it? After all, the latest Ipsos Mori opinion poll, published in early May, found just two Scots out of 1,001 would vote for Ukip. You're a political irrelevance, aren't you?

Good old Ipsos Mori. Brilliant. Conducting a political opinion poll without actually including Ukip on the list of runners and riders. You know, 18 months ago, I used to get this sort of sneering comment in England.

You know, the SNP's idea of independence within Europe has been exposed by Mr Barroso, from the European Commission, making clear that an independent Scotland from the UK would have to re-apply to join the Union and join the euro. The debate on Europe is now on in Scotland.

There's a problem for you though, isn't there, because the Scottish electorate clearly doesn't see you as being part of the political debate in Scotland. In effect, what the overwhelming message from yesterday's event in Edinburgh seemed to be was that your political philosophy is an alien political philosophy here in Scotland.

Well the fact that 50 yobbo, fascist scum turn up and aren't prepared to listen to the debate I absolutely refuse to believe is representative of Scottish public opinion. It is not in any way at all.

Does Ukip represent mainstream Scottish public opinion?

Well come and ask the Scottish born-and-bred and working members of Ukip in Scotland, I think they very much do. They don't represent a professional, political elite based in Edinburgh who have basically sold out any realistic ideas of independence to the European Union. They represent real people here in Scotland.

Looking at the Times this morning, you're quoted as saying, "turning up in Scotland, telling everyone how much you love Scotland and what a big part of your life it's been..."

Rubbish! I never said that a single thing like that.

Well, let me just finish putting the quote to you. "...Telling everyone how much I love Scotland and what a big part of my life it's been, how sincere I am, it would all have been a lot of rubbish wouldn't it?" And isn't that part of the problem - Ukip isn't part of Scottish political debate in any meaningful way, and you know very little of Scotland or the politics of Scotland.

I'm sensing similar hatred from this line of questioning that I got on the streets yesterday in Edinburgh.

We are the only UK-wide political party, we have representation from Wales in the European Parliament, we clearly have become quite strong in England and we intend to start mounting serious campaigns in Scotland. No other party in UK politics even attempts to do all of those things.

And remind me how many elected representatives you have in Scotland?

Absolutely none. But rather more than the BBC do, erm, and you know we could have had this in England a couple of years ago ... but I wouldn't have met with such hatred as I'm getting from your questions and frankly, I've had enough of this interview. Goodbye.