First Minister Nicola Sturgeon attacked Boris Johnson head-on this evening, branding the idea of him as prime minister a “horrifying prospect” as the pair clashed over the European Union.
The SNP leader also labelled Vote Leave’s claim – emblazoned on its bus – that EU membership costs the UK £350million a week an “absolute whopper”.
And she urged people to blame politicians rather than migrants for stretched public services, calling for an end to austerity.
The clash came during the ITV TV debate which included a panel of five women, plus the former London mayor.
He also took a beating from Labour’s shadow business secretary Angela Eagle, also for Remain, who ordered: “Get that lie off your bus.”
And Energy Secretary Amber Rudd, whose brother Roland is treasurer of the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign, added: “What we are going to do is repaint that bus.
“We are going to put a leprechaun on one end, a great big rainbow on one side and a pot of gold at the end, because that’s all it is, it’s pure fantasy.”
She also quipped the only number Mr Johnson was interested in was “the one that says Number 10”.
But Leave campaigner Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom, who went up against her boss, insisted nearly £10billion a year goes to the EU, which the UK “never sees again”.
The Remain panel extolled the virtue of the world’s biggest single market of more than 500 million people.
But Ms Sturgeon said the EU was also a community and highlighted workers’ rights such as paid holiday and maternity leave.
She added: “These are real gains of EU membership I think we should value and protect.
“I don’t fancy to be perfectly honest the prospect of a future of perhaps a Prime Minister Boris Johnson with complete freedom to rip up workers’ rights, to bin environmental protections, to keep blaming foreigners for all the ills of the world.
“I think that’s a pretty horrifying prospect.”
Mr Johnson hit back that he was proud to be descended from foreigners.
He added: “On the single market it is totally illusory to think that we necessarily need to be within that legal system in order to do well.
“In the last 20 years since the single market was founded, 27 independent non-EU countries did better than us in exporting goods into the single market including America. Twenty-one did better at exporting services.”
Ms Sturgeon said the contribution each person makes to the EU every day is less than £1.
But Mr Johnson insisted he was talking about “cold, hard cash that belongs to the people of this country”.
He said the experts – or “prophets of doom” – had got it wrong before, adding: “They are just as wrong about it today.”
The final pro-Brexit voice in the debate was German-born Labour MP Gisela Stuart, one of the few in her party to support Vote Leave and the campaign’s chairwoman.
She said that the only continent with a lower growth rate than Europe was Antarctica.
Earlier in the debate, Ms Sturgeon said a vote for leave was not a vote for independence.
She said she believed that nations should be independent, but wanted Scotland and the UK to remain part of the EU.
Some critics have suggested that a vote for Remain in Scotland coupled with a vote to Leave across the UK as a whole would be the first minister’s ideal outcome.
The SNP has said that could provide the material change required to trigger a second independence referendum, but also insists it is not the route the party would wish.
Head of the Scottish Vote Leave campaign and former Labour MP Tom Harris has previously argued supporters of Scottish independence will be tempted by Brexit because it would mean powers over fishing and agriculture are devolved from Brussels to the Scottish Parliament without a tussle at Westminster.
