UKIP leader Nigel Farage yesterday insisted he will play a key role in the campaign against Scottish independence.

We revealed last week that the pro-union Better Together campaign refused to work with UKIP to persuade Scots to vote against independence.

But Farage – fresh from the anti-EU party’s best ever results in the English council elections – has dismissed their snub and will visit Scotland this week to canvas business leaders.

He also vowed to challenge Alex Salmond over his position that an independent Scotland should join the EU.

UKIP were dismissed by David Cameron in 2006 as “fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists” and branded “a collection of clowns” by veteran Tory Ken Clarke last month.

But they had the last laugh when they won 147 seats across local authorities in England and Wales with 25 per cent of the vote in seats contested.

Farage said: “We will campaign in the referendum, as we will in the Scottish Parliament by-election in Aberdeen and the European Parliament elections.

“The debate on Scottish independence has been entirely false. Alex Salmond has never been properly challenged on how can Scotland be independent and be a member of the EU.

“I think the SNP’s case is holed below the water line.”

He said the SNP’s policy was inconsistent. Farage said: “The SNP are happy to substitute one form of government for an ever bigger and more remote form of government, over which they will have very little influence.

“If that happens, you may as well bulldoze the Scottish Parliament and let Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, run the place.

“You cannot be a democratic, self-governing nation and a member of the EU. You have to choose.

“That is why I think this referendum is the wrong way round. Before we sort out what our constitutional arrangements in the UK are going to be, we should first sort out whether the UK is independent or not.”

Farage said he was confident of UKIP winning seats at the Scottish Parliament election in 2016. He said: “I think the SNP’s position is being dismantled and the European debate is coming to be seen as relevant and pertinent to Scotland.

“On issues such as Scotland’s fishing fleet being closed down and its uplands being vandalised by wind energy just so some rich aristocratic landlords make even more money, UKIP is right and the establishment is wrong.”

An SNP spokesman said: “As UKIP drag Westminster politics further and further to the right – and far away from Scotland’s values – these ridiculous remarks from Nigel Farage underline exactly why Scotland needs to vote Yes and be an independent country.

“Mr Farage and his colleagues are an embarrassment to the rest of the No campaign. They are also a useful reminder to Scots of the dangers of a No vote in the independence referendum, which could see Scotland dragged to the exit door of the EU against our will.”

A Better Together spokesman said: “Only three parties are part of the official campaign and we’ve no plans to change that.”