David Coburn (politician)

David Coburn
MEP

Coburn at the European Parliament in July 2014
Leader of the UK Independence Party in Scotland
Assumed office
1 July 2014
Member of the European Parliament
for Scotland
Assumed office
1 July 2014
Serving with 5 others
Personal details
Born (1959-02-11) 11 February 1959
Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
Political party UK Independence Party
Education University of Leeds

David Coburn (born 11 February 1959) is a British politician and businessman. He was previously an art dealer and a financial trader. Since 2014, he has been a Member of the European Parliament for the Scotland constituency for the UK Independence Party.

Early life

Coburn was born on 11 February 1959 in Glasgow, Scotland.[1] He studied law at the University of Leeds, although he failed to graduate with a degree.[2]

He worked as an art dealer and City of London trader before owning a freight company.[2]

Political career

Coburn contested the southeast London seat of Old Bexley and Sidcup in 2010, winning 1,532 votes which put him in fifth place. He also stood in Bexley and Bromley in the 2012 London Assembly election, finishing fourth.

When the results of the 2014 European Parliament elections were declared, his permanent address was listed as Kensington, London. During the campaign he lived in a rented property in Edinburgh.[3][4]

Coburn ran in the 2014 European Parliament election to become a Member of the European Parliament for Scotland, as a member of UKIP Scotland. At the end of 2013 the UKIP Scotland was dissolved after infighting tore the regional party apart; the party's administrative body was dissolved, Mike Scott-Hayward (the chairman and chief fundraiser) quit, and Farage fired Lord Christopher Monckton via email.[5] The national party and UKIP Scotland focused on supporting the candidates for the upcoming European elections.[5] After Coburn won the seat,[6] he was appointed leader of UKIP Scotland.[7] His victory made him UKIP's second openly gay MEP, after Nikki Sinclaire.[2][8]

According to SNP candidate Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, Coburn repeatedly muddled her name at hustings during the European election campaign, when she was standing against him, referring to her as "Pashmina, Jasmine and Tamzin before eventually settling on a combination of 'love', 'dear' and 'honey'."[9][10] UKIP's Scottish chairman Misty Thackeray responded by saying "How humourless and thin-skinned are these people trying to make faux outrage stories about a slip of the tongue over a name? ... It wasn't mispronounced throughout the entire Euro campaign. It was mispronounced once; if memory serves me correctly, David called her Jasmina."[9]

He was one of six Scottish party leaders who took part in a debate in Aberdeen televised on BBC Scotland on 8 April 2015, ahead of that year's general election.[11] Contesting the constituency of Falkirk, he came fourth of five candidates, losing his deposit with 3% of the vote.[12]

In 2015, Coburn compared Scottish government minister Humza Yousaf to convicted terrorist Abu Hamza, later apologising and calling it a "joke". UKIP leader Nigel Farage called it a "joke in bad taste", but parliamentary candidate Tim Wilson in South Northamptonshire quit the party because of "what I can only describe as an Islamaphobic insult, and that's simply not acceptable".[13] EU President Martin Schulz said that the remarks were "not worthy of any elected member".[13]

In April 2015, a Wikipedia account operated by Coburn's office was blocked indefinitely for edit warring over his own page. Coburn's office confirmed the edits were by them; some news outlets attribute those edits to Coburn himself.[10][14][15]

Coburn's long series of political gaffes continued when he referred to the Scottish Parliament as Hollywood instead of Holyrood, during the 2016 campaign and criticized the BBC for alleged bias during the debates when in actual fact the debate was on rival channel ITV. Despite being made aware of his error, Coburn refused to back down.[16][17] After a television interview with political journalist Bernard Ponsonby, Coburn was widely criticized for his poor knowledge of Scottish politics and making up figures and policies for UKIP's Scottish manifesto.[18]

Political views

Coburn describes himself as a libertarian and he has said he will pursue a hardline "libertarian agenda". He also stated that he wanted businesses to be free of interference from government. He favours the legalisation of recreational drugs, believing that banning drugs causes crime.[2] He has spoken out against Scottish independence during an interview on the BBC's referendum flagship show Scotland Decides. During this interview he also claimed that UKIP were the most "unracist" political party. Despite being gay himself, he feels that gay marriage should not be allowed as it increases homophobia from religious people and that civil partnerships suffice.[2] He went on to accuse gay marriage supporters of being 'Equality Nazis'.[19]

In the face of local concerns Coburn has come out in favour of fracking in Falkirk, the constituency he stood for in the 2015 General Election.[20]

UKIP leadership election, 2016

In July 2016 Coburn declared his backing for Steven Woolfe in UKIP's leadership election to replace Nigel Farage.[21]

After a former Chairman of UKIP's Scotland branch called on Coburn to step down and be replaced as Scottish leader, he said "In any party there are people who will say this rubbish. A lot of them have sneaked into the party from other parties. These are also people who didn’t get chosen for a seat. Perhaps they have an axe to grind. We’ve got some total tossers in our party who are only out for themselves."[21]

Personal life

He is openly gay, and speaks fluent French and conversational Arabic.[22]

References

  1. ↑ "David Coburn". MEPs. European Parliament. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Whittaker, Andrew (27 May 2014). "Coburn: I'd legalise drugs, ban same-sex marriage". The Scotsman. Archived from the original on 31 May 2014.
  3. ↑ "Ukip's Coburn London-based despite Scots seat victory". The Herald. 27 May 2014. Archived from the original on 6 December 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  4. ↑ "European election results: David Coburn becomes Ukip's first Scots MEP". STV News. 26 May 2014. Archived from the original on 20 May 2014.
  5. 1 2 Hutcheon, Paul (30 November 2013). "Ukip 'wiped out' north of the Border after its Scots leader is sacked". Herald Scotland.
  6. ↑ Whitaker, Andrew; Peterkin, Tom (27 May 2014). "Ukip wins first seat in Scotland". The Scotsman. Archived from the original on 16 January 2016. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  7. ↑ "Key Figures". UKIP Scotland. Archived from the original on 3 October 2016. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  8. ↑ Nick Duffy (26 May 2014). "Openly gay UKIP MEP elected in Scotland". PinkNews.
  9. 1 2 Leask, David (16 March 2015). "Did UKIP's David Coburn deliberately muddle name of Asian SNP rival in Euro elections?". The Herald. Archived from the original on 20 March 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  10. 1 2 Pegg, David; Bengtsson, Helena (29 April 2015). "Ukip MEP David Coburn banned from Wikipedia indefinitely". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
  11. ↑ Kennedy, Doug (8 April 2015). "Election 2015: Scottish leaders' debate round-up". BBC News. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  12. ↑ "Falkirk". Election 2015. BBC News. Archived from the original on 8 May 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  13. 1 2 "UKIP candidate quits party over Scottish MEP's 'Abu Hamza' remark". BBC News. 24 March 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  14. ↑ "Scottish UKIP MEP David Coburn banned from Wikipedia". The Scotsman. 29 April 2015. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
  15. ↑ "Ukip candidate David Coburn MEP banned from editing own Wikipedia page". 29 April 2015. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
  16. ↑ http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/06/ukips-david-coburn-cries-bbc-bias-over-itv-debate/
  17. ↑ https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/political-parties/uk-independence-party/dot-commons-diary/75882/great-bbc-eu-conspiracy-%E2%80%93
  18. ↑ http://stv.tv/news/politics/1350171-google-it-david-coburn-grilled-on-ukip-claims-and-policies/
  19. ↑ "Coburn Says Gay Marriage Supporters Are 'Equality Nazis'". huffpost.com. 30 October 2014. Archived from the original on 1 November 2014. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
  20. ↑ McCall, Chris (16 April 2015). "UKIP candidate David Coburn wants Falkirk to embrace fracking". The Falkirk Herald. Archived from the original on 17 April 2015.
  21. 1 2 "Ukip members are 'tossers', says leader of Ukip in Scotland, David Coburn". Metro News. 2016-07-17. Retrieved 2016-08-16.
  22. ↑ "In with the Out crowd: on the streets with Ukip's David Coburn". The Herald. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
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