A major bus firm has accused First Minister John Swinney of behaving like a dictator over his government's plans to bring buses under public control.

Sandy Easdale, who owns McGill's alongside his brother James, said Swinney "appears to have transformed into the next Idi Amin or Robert Mugabe".

"Both men, incidentally, who bankrupted their countries through catastrophic financial policies," he added.

Jenny Gilruth, Swinney's deputy, said her government was "protecting" the public, who had faced a series of route closures in recent years.

Speaking at the SNP conference in Aberdeen on Saturday, the first minister said buses would be brought under public control by 2031 through franchising and regulation, with a Bill tabled in Holyrood next year.

The changes, it is understood, will allow regional transport partnerships to have more control over routes and fares on the bus network, without the government having to actively own it.

Ralph Roberts, chairman of McGill's, told BBC Scotland's Sunday Show that the Easdales had invested in local services.

He accused Swinney of trying to confiscate their business - a move he said had "incensed" owners.

"One of the problems that we have with this is the complete lack of dialogue," he said.

"You can understand why the owners want to refer to African dictators because that's how it feels from their perspective."

Roberts claimed the SNP's plans could cost the taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds each year.

"I've put forward a number of different alternative ways for the authorities or government to take control of bus services if that's what they want to do," he added.

"But these always fall on deaf ears. There's a bit of tunnel vision going on."

Under the proposals, he claims the firm would be competing for contracts from local authorities, meaning they could go "out of business" if they failed.

Roberts warned that McGill's was prepared to pursue legal routes to protect the company - and would go to "every court in the land" if required.

Despite the attacks, Deputy First Minister Jenny Gilruth promised to work with bus companies on the plans.

She told The Sunday Show: "Fundamentally, we're trying to protect our people, and across the country just now we see a number of routes having been removed."

Gilruth said the current private bus model was "a legacy of Thatcher's time when she took away that opportunity for there to be direct intervention from the state" on bus routes.

"So we're going back to an approach that better protects people," she said.

"We only need to look at the approach that's used, for example, in the city of Edinburgh to see how public ownership on this issue of McGill's benefit the public in terms of the number of routes that are available."

The Easdale brothers were "significant donors to the Labour Party", she noted.

Gilruth said the Scottish government was already providing significant investment in buses, including free travel for under 22s and over 60s.

"Of course we work with bus operators like McGill's and others to hear their views," she added.

"We've always done that in terms of how we've rolled out our approach to the under 22s, and of course to the £2 bus cap."

At the SNP conference, Swinney announced the extension of the £2 bus fare cap, with Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire to be covered from April.

The current cap covers Glasgow and West Scotland as well as the Highlands and Islands, with the government planning to expand it to the whole country by the end of the parliamentary term in 2031.