Salmond ‘should accept No vote’, says David Coburn

David Coburn delivers his speech on Scotland during Ukip's annual conference. Picture: PA

David Coburn told cheering delegates at Ukip’s national conference in Doncaster that he wanted to see a Scottish government “behaving responsibly with the money they raise”.

He said: “If it’s going to be fair, let him accept the result of the referendum. We would have had to accept (it) if it had been Yes, let him accept it now it’s No.”

Mr Coburn raised the West Lothian Question, stating: “We also do not believe that Scottish MPs should be legislating for English laws.”

He claimed: “It doesn’t pay for Mr Salmond to abuse the English ... that’s not the way to treat Scotland’s largest trading partner and oldest best friend.”

Mr Coburn branded the shape of the referendum an “absolutely shambles”, while his own election, he argued, proved that Scots were “equally interested” in getting out of the European Union.

Ukip, he argued, presented a “clear and present danger” to Labour in Scotland, while the Tories and Liberal Democrats were a “cocktail of irrelevance in the Scottish picture”.

Food banks, he claimed, were the result of years of socialist Labour and socialist SNP government in Scotland, adding: “The way to eradicate food banks in Scotland is not by wringing your hands but by creating real jobs in the private sector.”

He said: “Free enterprise creates jobs, socialism breeds poverty and unemployment,” adding: “We need to take the dead hand of socialism from the back of the Scottish young entrepreneur.”

Ukip, he argued, wanted a libertarian Scotland.

Mr Coburn hit out at the class cliches of left and right, declaring: “We’re not interested in all that old class rubbish, it’s a load of old nonsense. Ukip are a meritocratic party, we want everyone to have a chance to get on in life, and that’s a good Scottish principle.”

Ukip MEP for Wales Nathan Gill argued: “For too long the Labour Party has taken Wales and the people of Wales for granted.”

He said: “It is time for Barnett to be revisited and a fair settlement for the whole of the UK to be made. Wales needs Ukip, Wales needs politicians who are people just like them who have entered politics because of conviction.”

The desire for independence in Wales, he argued, was at an “all-time low”, adding: “We know that we are better together and that all of us benefit from this United Kingdom. Wales is ready for change and Ukip is ready to deliver it.”