Nigel Farage bundled into police van after being barricaded inside pub where he was going to promote Scottish by-election candidate

• Protesters shouting 'racist Nazi scum' storm UKIP press conference
• They then lay siege to the pub forcing police to barricade doors
• Mr Farage is in Scotland campaigning for Aberdeen Donside by-election

By Daily Mail Reporter

Published: 13:37 EST, 16 May 2013 | Updated: 05:41 EST, 17 May 2013

Nigel Farage had to be locked in a pub for his own safety yesterday after being surrounded by a hostile crowd as he launched a by-election campaign.

Farage and his entourage were first heckled as they attempted to hold a press conference in The Canons’ Gait in Edinburgh by protesters shouting  ‘racist scumbag’ and ‘scum’.

The flustered UKIP leader was asked to leave and went outside where he tried to carry on making a speech.

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Not-so-Braveheart: Ukip leader Nigel Farage is bundled into a police riot van after anti-fascist protesters laid siege to a pub where he was today launching his campaign to win more seats in Scotland

Public disorder: Police restrain angry protesters as they take Mr Farage to safety in the riot van

As the angry demonstration continued, he attempted to flee by hailing a taxi but it was surrounded. A woman in a wheelchair rolled in front of the cab to stop it driving away.

Farage leapt out and police had to escort him back into the pub. He was eventually driven away in a police van as protesters chanted ‘scum, scum, scum’.

He said: ‘I do not know what they are shouting, we have never, never ever had this response. Is it because I am  English? I’ve never had anyone call me a racist.’

Not flowery in Scotland: The UK Independence Party leader is on the receiving end of some abusive language during the visit

'Racist Nazi scum': Angry protesters heckle Mr Farage outside the Canon's Gait Pub in Edinburgh after his attempts to flee by taxi were foiled. He is seen being led back to the safety of the pub by police officers

His trademark is to be pictured enjoying a pint in pubs during campaigns, this time for the poll in Aberdeen next month.

Farage arrived at The Canons’ Gait at 5pm with around ten supporters, including UKIP candidate Otto Inglis.

After being jostled and heckled, staff asked them to leave. One said: ‘It was getting loud and unsafe for customers. We did not invite him here.’

The protest is said to have been organised on social media by a group called Radical Independence Edinburgh.

The wheelchair user who blocked his get-away gave her name only as Rachel, 24, from Edinburgh.

‘It’s obvious that people in Scotland blatantly don’t want him and his policies here,’ she said.

Listen to the full interview here

Outside the Canon's Gate Pub: Today's demonstration against Mr Farage and his policies is understood to have been organised on social media by a group called Radical Independence Edinburgh

Speaking after the event, Mr Farage said: 'Normally I would love to be locked in a pub, but it was pretty unpleasant. It’s not something I’ve experienced myself anywhere else in the United Kingdom.

'If this is the face of Scottish nationalism, it’s a pretty ugly picture.'

'This was dressed up as an anti-racism protest, but it was nothing of the sort – it was an anti-English thing.'

Mr Farage said the protesters were ‘not prepared to have a conversation’ and he praised the police for a ‘very, very good job’.

'If the police hadn’t been there it could have turned very nasty,' he said.

The UKIP leader was in Scotland to promote his party following a string of victories in English council elections.

The party is fighting next months’ Holyrood by-election in Aberdeen Donside, and is aiming to win a Scottish seat in next year’s European election.

Mr Farage asked to meet political journalists in a pub near the Scottish Parliament, and selected the Canons’ Gait on the Royal Mile.

Often pictured with a pint in his hand, the colourful politician chatted to reporters and drank a beer before he carried out TV interviews. But around 20 protesters arrived in the bar shortly after 5pm.

Mr Farage was accused of being a ‘racist’ and likened to BNP leader Nick Griffin by the angry mob. The politician defended his policies, before peace was briefly restored and a press conference was held with journalists.

But 15 minutes later, the anti-racism activists started chanting again and – with no apparent sense of irony - shouted at Mr Farage to ‘go home’.

A bar manager ordered protesters, journalists and ‘you too Mr Farage’ to leave the pub.

But the UKIP leader was surrounded by campaigners on the street outside, with chants including: 'UKIP scum off our streets.'

'People in Scotland blatantly don't want him': Mr Farage's attempts to flee in a taxi were foiled when protesters surrounded the vehicle and one woman rolled her wheelchair in front of it to stop it from driving away

Not going anywhere: Protesters block the street ahead of Mr Farage's taxi. The woman in the wheelchair, who gave her name as Rachel, said: 'He is a racist b******. His views on immigration are just wrong'

Time for plan B: Mr Farage is escorted by police as he exits the taxi to return to the now empty pub

Around ten police officers had been called to the scene, who stopped traffic on the busy road. A taxi was flagged down, but the driver refused to let Mr Farage in his car.

The MEP then tried to speak to protesters again, and a number of anti-British slogans were shouted at him. A second taxi was flagged down by police officers, and Mr Farage got inside.

However, a female activist in a wheelchair blocked the cab from moving, and Mr Farage was eventually forced to exit – leaving his briefcase inside.

Officers bundled him back inside the Canons’ Gait, and the doors were locked. As protesters swarmed around the building, a riot van arrived ten minutes later at 5.40pm and took Mr Farage to a hotel elsewhere in the city centre.

UKIP spokesman Gawain Towler said the abuse hurled at Mr Farage ‘sounded’ anti-English, adding: 'It was inchoate rage.'

Mr Towler insisted that his leader would continue with his engagements north of the Border, including a dinner for fundraisers, and will return to Scotland in August. Mr Farage also plans to travel north for next year’s independence referendum.

UKIP has never made a breakthrough in Scotland, receiving just 0.91 per cent of the regional vote in the 2011 Holyrood election.

But the party achieved its best ever English local government results earlier this month, polling an average of 23 per cent in the wards it contested, and returning 147 councillors.

Anger: A protester confronts Mr Farage inside the Canon's Gate pub as he tries to give interviews to the Press. The pub's management said the Ukip leader did not even bother to inform them of his plans

Mr Farage responds to the hecklers: A member of the bar staff said the first they knew of the press conference was when police phoned them at three in the afternoon - just three hours before it was due to start

Before the trouble started, the UKIP leader told reporters his hopes of making a breakthrough in Scotland had been improved by next year’s independence referendum.

'The SNP is selling an entirely false prospectus to the people of Scotland. They talked about independence within the European Union – don’t make me laugh,' he said.

'If the SNP position was they wanted to be out of the United Kingdom and out of the European Union, at least intellectually, you could respect that position.'

He said the independence debate has prompted a discussion on EU membership, adding: 'We’ve got some things to say about how Scotland might be outside the European Union with a reinvigorated fishing industry.

'There’s a gap in the political market for UKIP in Scotland that didn’t exist last year.'

But Mr Farage admitted the 'immigration argument' was not as potent in Scotland because there has not been the same influx of foreigners north of the Border as in the south of England.