SNP First Minister John Swinney has warned of “real difficulties” ahead if US President-elect Trump follows through on policy.

The First Minister offered Mr Trump his “congratulations” on X (formerly Twitter), adding: “We will stand fast in support of our values of fairness, democracy and equality — ideals America was built on.”

But speaking of Mr Trump — whose mother hailed from the Western Isles — on a later visit to a distillery, the First Minister warned of the need to continue the war in Ukraine “to repel the Russian aggression,” before turning to import tariffs on Scotch levied by the last Trump administration.

Urging no return to the 25 per cent tariffs the industry argues cost £600m lost in exports, he said: “There is the potential for there to be some real difficulties ahead for the Scotch whisky industry, and other industries, because the United States market is very significant.”

Echoing Mr Swinney’s support of the war in Ukraine, Scottish Green co-leader Lorna Slater branded Mr Trump’s election: “A dark day for women. A dark day for Ukraine. A dark day for Gaza. A dark day for our planet.”