NIGEL Farage is defying calls to stay away from Scotland today, brushing aside fears that his presence at a Ukip rally in Glasgow will boost the Yes campaign.
The leader of the anti-EU party insists his aim is to expose the referendum as a sham. He argues it is not about Scottish independence but, rather, separation from England because victory for Alex Salmond would lead to Scotland being run by Brussels.
The former City of London trader claimed the SNP leader's Achilles heel is his lack of a policy on currency.
Mr Farage declared: "I know the banks aren't bluffing. You cannot have a banking system or a financial services industry without a lender of last resort.
"If I was an investor with an account in Edinburgh and there was a Yes vote I would have to get my money out as quickly as I could. There is some evidence of that in the markets this week."
On the issue of a currency union, he said: "Can you imagine telling English taxpayers 'OK, chaps, what you are going to do is act as a guarantor for all companies operating north of the Border and receive none of the tax revenues'? That is not a bluff."
The Ukip leader said he expects Scottish banks to relocate south of the Border if there is a Yes vote but if, they do not, then he says there will be a run on them as Scots withdraw their money and put it into institutions in the remaining UK.
He said: "If the banks just stood there like rabbits in the headlights after a Yes vote, then, of course, there would be [a bank run].
"They would be queuing round the block like they were for Northern Rock. It's the key weakness of Salmond's argument: he has no currency plan, that's the basic problem."
In May 2013, the Ukip leader, who hopes to become a Kent MP at the General Election, had to seek refuge in an Edinburgh pub as police protected him from an angry mob, whom he later described as "fascist scum".
Mr Farage made it clear Police Scotland had been "extremely helpful" ahead of his visit.
However, asked if he had been urged to stay away, he said: "I have had lots of people persuading me to go and lots of people persuading me not to go, so I have had both sides of the argument on this."
Those urging him not to come to Scotland did not include the UK Government or Better Together, whom, he said, regard Ukip as "beneath contempt".
He added: "If I was not to go, it would be an odd thing to do given we won representation in May in the European Parliament from Scotland. If I didn't go, it would be effectively me giving up on Ukip as the 'UK' independence party."
Asked if his presence would boost the fortunes of Yes Scotland, he replied: "Why should it?"
He added: "If it was called a separation referendum, that would be all right, but how can it be independence when Alex Salmond is utterly committed to membership of the EU? You can't be independent if you're a member of the EU. So the Scottish people are being sold an entirely false premise."
Mr Farage dismisses the notion he is a high-Tory hate figure, saying: "I represent the most working-class party in British politics. Ukip has more working-class support now than the Labour Party, so that's a difficult one to stand up. Despite Alex Salmond saying Ukip did not have a voice in Scottish politics and had no right to commentate on it, we won one of the MEP seats in May, so Ukip does have a voice in Scottish politics."
The Ukip leader accepts the "energy and the buzz" has been with the Yes campaign and the "grey men from Westminster" resonate neither with people in Scotland nor in England.
"I suspect," he adds, "the economic realities and the lack of a [currency] plan will bring a No vote. But it is not certain."
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