ALEX Salmond has ramped up his attack on Humza Yousaf’s Green minister Patrick Harvie, calling him a “total idiot” at his show on the Edinburgh Fringe.

Former SNP cabinet secretary Fergus Ewing also likened the SNP governing with the Greens to teenagers getting in “with the wrong crowd”.

Mr Salmond, a former First Minister and now leader of the Alba party, yesterday said the co-leader of the Scottish Greens was guilty of saying “fundamentally stupid things”. 

Interviewed by broadcaster Iain Dale at the Pleasance EICC, Mr Salmond cited Mr Harvie’s recent public spat over home heat pumps with Labour peer Willie Haughey.

“Governments shouldn’t be insulting leading industrialists in Scotland for no reason,” he said, adding the current FM should end the SNP-Green join government deal.

Later in the day, Mr Salmond went further at his own Westminster-style debate show The Ayes Have it, attacking Mr Harvie directly not merely his judgment.

Speaking in favour of Scottish independence, he predicted his Unionist opponents in the debate would use the Greens to attack independence.

He said: “We’re going to hear a lot about Patrick Harvie. As if we should decide the case for independence on a total idiot like Patrick Harvie. Don’t be ridiculous.”

READ MORE: Harvie saying 'fundamentally stupid things' in heat pump row says former FM

As he sat down he was clapped on the back by Mr Ewing, the former SNP cabinet secretary who has become a pungent critic of the Greens at Holyrood.

Mr Salmond has repeatedly called for all the pro-independence parties to come together and contest elections under a single Scotland United banner.

In his own contribution to the debate, Mr Ewing also referred to Mr Harvie as he extolled Scotland’s traditional north sea industries.

He said: “Look at what we’ve got, the resource we’ve got. 

“Not just oil and gas, which is still, despite the Green chap whose name has been mentioned once or twice, we have still got tremendous resource from oil and gas.

“And what I think he perhaps doesn’t understand and I do is.. the people in our industry are respected as world leaders.”

He was then interrupted by fellow speaker David Davis, the former Brexit Secretary, and asked: “How is this all going to work with Patrick Harvie in government?”

READ MORE: Kate Forbes calls for SNP conference debate on agreement with Greens

Mr Ewing replied: “You know how in teenage years some of our kids maybe get in with the wrong crowd? But, you know, what happens is you grow up. That’s what happens.”

Mr Ewing also joked about the police probe into SNP’s finance, which saw a luxury motorhome seized from outside the home of Nicola Sturgeon’s mother-in-law.

“I have been around in the SNP for a hell of a long time, so long that I can remember the days when we couldn’t even afford to rent a campervan,” Mr Ewing said.

The Scottish Greens have been asked for comment.