David Coburn, gay Scottish UKIP leader, quits party over far-right shift

UKIP’s two most senior gay figures, Scottish leader David Coburn and London Assembly Member Peter Whittle, have quit the party in protest of its shift to the far right.

David Coburn, the UKIP Member of the European Parliament for the Scotland, followed former leaders Nigel Farage and Paul Nuttall in quitting UKIP.

In a statement, Coburn condemned the “infiltration” of the party by far-right nationalists and questioned UKIP’s courting of former English Defence League leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson.

Coburn wrote: “It is with great sadness that after 10 years, I announce my resignation from UKIP.”

David Coburn MEP addresses party members during the UKIP Annual Spring Conference at the Macron Stadium on February 17, 2017 in Bolton, England. (Christopher Furlong/Getty)

He added: “We have seen an increase in English Nationalists joining UKIP. As a Unionist, I abhor English Nationalism as much as I abhor Scottish Nationalism.

“The party has been infiltrated by people with an alternative agenda, which is not the one on which I stood when I was elected and sadly, does not represent the values for which UKIP once stood.

“I did not run on an anti-Islam platform. Unfortunately, this seems to be the direction that UKIP is taking – obsessing about this issue to the exclusion of all else at a time when we might lose the Brexit we fought so hard for.”

The party’s only other out LGBT+ elected official, London Assembly Member Peter Whittle, also confirmed his resignation from UKIP.

Several of the resigning UKIP politicians have spoken out about the party’s recently-bolstered anti-LGBT policies.

UKIP MEP William Dartmouth claimed the party has been “hijacked” by homophobic, anti-Islamic extremists when he quit in September