Click here to watch Clegg's arrival in Edinburgh yesterday.

Click here to watch interview with Clegg.

Nick Clegg paid his first visit to the Scottish Parliament as the LibDems' UK leader yesterday and began winning over his MSPs who had been largely hostile to him.

He had told The Herald in advance of his visit that Gordon Brown had to allow more powers for Holyrood if he was to defeat the SNP's aspirations for independence, which he dubbed the "cul-de-sac of opportunism".

Yet once he criticised Labour and Tory approaches to this as "feeding the beast" of separatism, it was put to him that this was precisely his own argument for enhanced powers for Holyrood.

"I don't advocate this as a tactic," he said. "I advocate it on its own merits.

"The whole European experience shows that Donald Dewar was right about the dynamic. It is others who are deluding themselves."

The Sheffield Hallam MP added: "You can advocate further devolution on its own merits and also observe that setting your face against any further devolution and, doing what I fear Gordon Brown might do, pull up the drawbridge, slam the door against any moves towards further devolution, will act as a catalyst, in my view, for further support for independence.

"It will make it easier for those pushing the case for independence to wax and wail against obduracy from London."

Yet, while he advocated "no holds barred" reform at Westminster, he insisted that independence had to remain off the list of choices for any referendum in Scotland. "Certain parameters have to exist," he said.

He also came across as more hostile to PFI/PPP private finance deals than his Scottish counterpart Nicol Stephen, who had just spent First Minister's Questions condemning SNP efforts to come up with an alternative to these schemes.

It was an eventful first visit as leader to Holyrood, where the complex roofing structures of the building was being challenged by rainstorms, and buckets for leaks were appearing in corridors.

Green MSP Patrick Harvie observed of his arrival: "Oh, that's another little drip we've got."

But while there is no love lost between Green's and Liberal Democrats, there was doubts about the reception he would receive from his own MSPs, most of whom had backed rival Chris Huhne.

But Mr Clegg came through that examination as his party closed ranks behind its new federal leader.

As one senior group member put it: "I was pleased to hear him make the connection between the fact that there is no liberation in poverty, no liberation in being denied education."

The SNP's Brian Adam said: "In his first public comment about Scottish politics, Mr Clegg discusses the circumstances for continued SNP success - which only confirms that the London-based parties are dancing to Scotland's tune."