UKIP leader Nigel Farage, undaunted by his high-profile public confrontation in Edinburgh a month ago, will return to Scotland next Tuesday to campaign in the Holyrood by-election for Aberdeen Donside.

His spokesman said that Mr Farage was determined to hit the stump on behalf of the party's candidate Otto Inglis and has been buoyed by local polls that put Ukip on 8%; double the level for the Liberal Democrats.

"Nigel feels the need to return to Scotland because he believes the by-election is important; all elections are important. It's only the Westminster bubble which doesn't take Scotland seriously."

Last month, Mr Farage had to seek refuge in an Edinburgh pub as the police were called in after chaotic scenes took place when the Ukip leader sought to stage a press conference on the Royal Mile.

After protesters shouted the party leader down, the incident was dubbed "the siege of The Canons' Gait".

Later, Mr Farage blamed the clash on "racist" and "anti-English" independence supporters.

For his part, First Minister Alex Salmond said at the time: "We can frankly do without Ukip, who dislike everybody and know absolutely nothing about Scotland."

The spokesman for Mr Farage said the Ukip leader now regarded the incident in the Scottish capital as "water off a duck's back".

He went on: "What happened in Scotland was not reflective of the people of Scotland but merely a bunch of radical students you find in university towns and was merely a reflection of an extreme wing of Scottish Nationalism."

The SNP's Mark McDonald is favourite to win the seat where his colleague, Brian Adam, whose death sparked the by-election, took more than 55% of the vote in 2011 with a majority of 7175.