A close associate of Johnny Adair tonight said he would return to Belfast when he wants to.
Speaking this evening Mr John White said up to 20 more families are seeking refuge in Scotland because of the loyalist paramilitary feud on the streets of Belfast.
He claimed: "They have forced out over 20 good, decent families and many more people are leaving."
Mr White fled with a group including Adair's wife and family after they were driven from their stronghold in west Belfast.
But he vowed to defy Ulster Defence Association death threats by returning to Northern Ireland.
He insisted: "People will be back. This leadership will not be in power for very long."
However, UDA chiefs who expelled members of Adair's C Company and warned them never to come back dismissed White's defiance.
Senior loyalist sources insisted they had no option but to keep moving. The on-the-run group who were forced from their homes in the Lower Shankill estate spent the night at a hotel in Ayr before heading on earlier today.
Adair, who has been left totally isolated in his jail cell, is thought to have purchased property in the Ayrshire area and his wife, children and associates, may be holed up there.
It is understood one of his men was also operating in the drugs trade along the west coast of Scotland months before the latest paramilitary feud erupted into a shooting war that claimed four lives.
But a senior loyalist in Belfast said tonight: "White's claiming they have been given a warm welcome over there but it just isn't true.
"The only power base these people have in Scotland is among a few crackheads and drug dealers.
"Communities in Ayr and Dumfrieshire are up in arms. They don't want them either."
PA