Coburn hits out at fellow Ukip members

THE leader of Ukip in Scotland has said his party has some “total tossers”.

The comments came during an interview with Scots MEP David Coburn after it emerged that Ukip is demanding a £5,000 deposit from any member who wants to run to succeed Nigel Farage as party leader.

An email from UKIP’s chairman – seen by our sister paper The Sunday Herald – said that the nomination form for anyone running to replace Nigel Farage as UK party leader “must be accompanied by a cheque or Paypal payment for £5,000, which shall be refunded upon polling at least 5 per cent of the vote”.

In an apparent move to detoxify the party, the email also warns members who want to stand that their social media profiles must be purged of racist posts.

Discussing the deposit, Ukip’s leader in Scotland David Coburn said some party members were “total tossers”, and the financial “barrier” was necessary to ensure the right candidates.

He defended the deposit, saying “it can’t be that difficult to get that kind of money in this day and age”.

Green MSP Ross Greer said: “It’s not really surprising Ukip would seek to take advantage of its wealthy and out-of-touch senior politicians and shut normal people out of the process. The outgoing leader worked as a trader in the City and its only MP plied his trade with an investment management company.”