IDEA OF FARAGE AS PM MAKES ME ILL

First Minister John Swinney took time out from campaigning in Oban yesterday to speak to Record Political Editor Paul Hutcheon

- Paul Hutcheon

JOHN Swinney fears Nigel Farage will lead the Tories one day and could become prime minister - saying the thought of it "makes me ill".

The SNP leader sounded the alarm over the "deeply troubling" rise of the right-wing Reform Party chief whose party is polling ahead of the Tories.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Record ahead of the SNP's General Eleciton manifesto launch today, Swinney revealed he would never campaign with former SNP leader Alex Salmond again.

And in a sign of future co-operation with a UK Labour government, he revealed his party will support Labour plans for VAT on private school fees.

But it is the potential rise of Farage as a major player in UK politics that sickens the First Minister.

Asked if Farage could become Tory leader by rejoining his old party, Swinney said: "Yes, I think there is every possibility. I might even go as far as to say 'likelihood' that might be the case.

"I don't recognise the Conservative Party."

He added: "The Conservative Party is just drifting itself into a position where, actually, it is really quite at ease with the arguments of Nigel Farage."

Asked if he could see Farage becoming PM if a Labour government fails to deliver, he said: "It's a possibility".

Swinney, a party veteran who took over as First Minister from Humza Yousaf, also spoke about the continuing rift in the independence movement between the SNP and Alex Salmond's Alba Party.