A second independence referendum could be held in just over a decade, according to Nigel Farage.
The Reform UK leader set out his views pointing to the vote being "once in a generation" as he noted the independence referendum was held in 2014 and a generation is "about 25 years".
With the SNP campaigning at the election to seek a mandate to hold a second independence referendum, The Herald asked Mr Farage if he became Prime Minister would he agree to a new vote.
There were howls of protest in the hall as The Herald asked the question.
Mr Farage said: "People were promised here in 2014 that the referendum on separation from the United Kingdom was a once in a generation thing, which would mean about 25 years.
"I can't predict for a moment what it will be. I very much doubt there will ever be a popular will for a vote to break up the United Kingdom."
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Mr Farage was in Scotland on Thursday to unveil his party's candidates and manifesto for the Holyrood election on May 7.
He spoke just after the party's Scottish leader Lord Malcolm Offord, a former Conservative minister and peer, addressed hundreds of party members at the Ingliston Country Club and Hotel near Bishopton, Renfrewshire.
A series of polls suggests that Reform UK may become the second largest party and the main opposition to John Swinney's SNP.
Polls have also forecast that Mr Farage is the favourite to become Prime Minister after the next general election in 2029.
Lord Offord, who opened his speech by saying he was standing to become the next "First Minister of Scotland", has previously suggested a second independence referendum could take place in around ten years.
The party's Holyrood manifesto rules out a referendum within the next ten years saying this period should be spent focusing on "turbo-charging" Scotland's economy. However, it leaves open what would happen after 2036.
It states: "It will take ten years (two Holyrood terms) to implement this manifesto to turbocharge the economy in Scotland, which will unleash the resources required to deliver significant reforms to our health service, our education, our housing and our infrastructure.
"Which is why Reform UK says ENOUGH to the distraction of another referendum."
The stance taken by Reform on a new independence vote is notably different from other Unionist parties with both the Conservatives and Labour refusing to contemplate a timescale for a prospective new vote on the constitution.
Lord Offord also pressed by The Herald over other Reform policies.
He was asked if a Reform Scottish Government would maintain free tuition for university Scottish students.
In his answer Lord Offord did not guarantee that university tuition would remain free for Scottish students.
"We have got ourselves into a position where 50% of our young people are going to university," he said.
He added that this was "wonderful" so long as they had "good careers" after they left university.
"I have to say every bar man I have met in Glasgow has a degree and yet we are short of welders."
He noted a recent visit to the defence company Babcock's where he was told a welder was on an annual salary of £75,000.
Lord Offord went to say that "because the SNP had cut funding to Fife College" there were not enough places to train welders.
"They have cut a welding school and we have just brought in 300 welders from the Philipines. It is a national disgrace. We need to reorganise our young people around trades, skills, around technical skills and yes there is room for university in that as well."
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Speaking in his first conference speech since being appointed as Reform’s leader in Scotland, Lord Offord told members the country is “broken” and that "Scotland is at a crossroads".
He added “Scotland is now at a crossroads, and the Holyrood election is the most critical we have had in 20 years.
“Under the SNP’s failed Government, all we got in Scotland is mid-table mediocrity.
“The sad reality – and I hate to say this as a proud Scot, but I have to accept it – the sad reality is that Scotland is broken.
“But it doesn’t have to be this way. I know that all of you are just as ambitious as I am to put Scotland back at the top of the table, to make Scotland the most successful part of the UK.”
Lord Offord reiterated his view that all public sector bodies in Scotland should be scrapped, with a decision made at a later date to bring back those which are deemed necessary.
Asked how he would manage to coax back civil servants who had previously been laid off, he said: “The question is, who’s even actually in the office anyway?
“I think we need to rationalise this in a professional way.
“Here’s the thing – we need to grow the private sector, we’re going to grow the private sector, we’ll make wages better in the private sector, and if there’s dislocations from the public sector, there’ll be good jobs to be had in the private sector instead.”
Mr Farage told the event there is very little to distinguish the political parties in Scotland, but his party will “challenge the Holyrood consensus”.
Addressing party faithful on Thursday, Mr Farage said: “The consensus that has built up in Holyrood around most major policies has, frankly, made the parties virtually indistinguishable over the course of the last few years.”
Pointing to Lord Offord, he added: “This election is going to be different, and I’ll tell you why it’s going to be different – it’s the fellow sitting over there.
“(Lord Offord) is unafraid to challenge the Holyrood consensus, unafraid to challenge the cosy club that has built up around Holyrood, around the quangos, around much of the media, around almost the entirety of the political class.
“He’s prepared to stand up on your behalf and challenge all of that.”
On energy, the party has made a number of pro-fossil fuel pledges, including scrapping all net zero targets set by the Scottish Government and fast-tracking planning for new energy projects, including “open cast coal mining”.
With the country struggling with its prison population, the party promised to increase capacity in jails, while also giving longer sentences to “repeat offenders”.
Opening the conference on Thursday, Reform UK chairman David Bull said the “stakes are incredibly high” at May’s election.
“I believe this is the last chance saloon for Scotland and, actually, for the United Kingdom,” he said.
“I believe passionately that Reform UK is the only choice to turn things around once and for all.
“The latest polling now shows us in Scotland at 20% – that puts us in second place in Scotland and that is utterly extraordinary.”
In polling in recent months, the party has been battling for second place with Labour.
The 27-page document unveiled at the party’s conference also suggests a Reform government in Scotland would “shut down the quangos and return their powers to democratically-elected ministers supported by the civil service”.
SNP depute leader Keith Brown said Reform “couldn’t care less about Scotland”.
Scottish Labour deputy leader Dame Jackie Baillie said the manifesto was “scribbled on the back of a cigarette packet and the sums don’t add up”, claiming that the pledges show Reform “simply is not in this race”.
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said: “Reform is the gift that keeps on giving … to John Swinney.
“As well as unveiling pro-independence candidates, Lord Offord has provided a roadmap to another referendum and is appealing to so-called ‘rational nationalists’.
“Pro-Union voters can be in no doubt that Reform pose a threat to Scotland’s place within the UK. They must back the Scottish Conservatives on the peach ballot to stop an SNP majority.”
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