‘I am a humble Scottish farmer,” insists Archie Stirling, the millionaire businessman, former husband of an Avenger, nephew of the founder of the SAS and Scotland’s latest and most unlikely political leader.

Not many humble Scottish farmers have a barony, membership of Annabelle’s nightclub and an actress daughter who has recorded some of the raunchiest scenes ever seen on British network television.

All in all, there is little humble and nothing ordinary about Archibald Hugh Stirling of Keir.

Last week, newspaper front pages trumpeted Stirling as nothing less than the saviour of the Union. The 300-year-old treaty between Scotland and England was under threat from a nationalist challenge in May’s Holyrood elections, with Alex Salmond, the Scottish National party leader, promising a referendum on independence.

But Britain need fear not. Stirling, former husband of Dame Diana Rigg, had come to its rescue with his new political party.

“Most Scots would like to improve government from Holyrood and keep the Union strong,” went a leaked mission statement for the new party.

“The history of the Union is one of advantage to Scotland. Scottish culture is distinct from English culture, not hostile to it.”

The Scottish Democrats were billed as a party in the spirit of Sir David Stirling, Archie’s uncle, who founded the SAS. What better slogan for a man trying to save his country than “Who Dares Wins”? Speaking exclusively to The Sunday Times, the 63-year-old sighs when the week’s media storm is mentioned. Before it has even been launched, Stirling feels his party has been traduced and misrepresented.

“They’re not accurate when they talk about us being right wing, right of centre, land-owning, unionist or whatever else,” he insists. So what in fact do the Scottish Democrats stand for? Stirling explains that the inspiration for the party came when he was reading an article in this newspaper. “What really kick-started me was when I read in The Sunday Times that 30% of 16-year-olds couldn’t read or write to satisfactory standards,” he recalls.

“I thought, you can’t run a country like that. You can’t be surprised that there are sink estates and hoodies and drugs and everything else, because what hope is there for them just standing in the street? “You’ve got to give people hope, and the parliament is not giving them hope.”

There were other spurs too — Scotland’s dependency culture, the high proportion of workers employed in the public sector, rising violent crime, high infant mortality, and the “disengaged, disenfranchised and disillusioned” in Scottish society.

Stirling thought somebody needed to do something about this, and realised that somebody might be himself. “I thought in 10 years’ time there was a danger I’d look back and think, ‘God, I wish I’d done something.’

“Alternatively, I might think, ‘Oh dear, I got a lot of egg on my face there.’ But at least I’d be able to say I tried.”

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