UKIP activists call for David Coburn to be replaced

Senior UKIP activists have called for their spokesman in Scotland MEP David Coburn to be replaced.

UKIP Leader Nigel Farage with UKIP Scotland leader David Coburn in Edinburgh . Picture: TSPL

Mr Coburn is labelled “gaffe-prone” in a letter, signed by ten members, sent to to UKIP’s party chairman, Steve Crowther, in London. He is the party’s only elected politician in Scotland and has dismissed the criticism as “nonsense”.

The group, including five local party chairmen – Peter Adams, Sarah Devenney, Ross Durrance, Otto Inglis and Bill Wright – say he is “not suited to being the Scottish face of the Brexit campaign”.

Nigel Farage, who was due to be campaigning in Inverness on Wednesday, said: “He just occasionally says things that perhaps he might regret later, but you know what, he’s come from the world of business, he’s got involved in politics,

“Once you rise in the polls and people can see there’s a prospect of getting elected to Holyrood, then all sorts of rivalries come into play, we’ve seen a bit of that in Scotland – it’s part of the natural growing pains political parties have.”