Nicola Sturgeon: UKIP’s David Coburn is a ‘disgrace’
Nicola Sturgeon has rebuked UKIP’s Scottish leader David Coburn during a TV debate, after he compared a Muslim politician to a terrorist.
Mr Coburn, who is the UK Independence Party’s most senior gay politician, shrugged off calls to resign last month after ‘jokingly’ comparing SNP Minister Humza Yousaf to convicted terrorist Abu Hamza.
He was challenged on his comments by the leader of the SNP, Nicola Sturgeon, while the pair were appearing on BBC Scotland’s election debate alongside other Scottish party leaders.
After Mr Coburn gave several answers warning about immigrants, Ms Sturgeon said: “I think the only depressing thing tonight is the narrow-minded xenophobic attitude of David Coburn.
“It’s absolutely utterly disgusting. This is the guy who compared one of my colleagues to a convicted terrorist simply because he’s a Muslim.
“You are a disgrace.”
Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Conservative Party, added: “I support both Humza Yousaf and Nicola Sturgeon in their stance against his bigotry.”
Two of the party’s Prospective Parliamentary Candidates, Tim Wilson and Dr Jon Stanley, recently quit in protest after Coburn neglected to stand down.
It is far from the first time that Coburn has landed himself in hot water,
He previously branded Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson a “fat lesbian” and compared then-SNP leader Alex Salmond to dictator Robert Mugabe.
Despite being gay, the UKIP MEP is a fierce critic of the gay rights movement, claiming in October that same-sex marriage supporters are “equality Nazis”.
He ranted: “What you’re doing with the gay marriage issue is you’re rubbing people’s noses in the dirt.
“[It’s] the equality Nazis trying to give Christianity a jolly good kicking. You know it, I know it, we all know it – it’s false bollocks, the lot of it.
“It’s just for some queen who wants to dress up in a bridal frock and in a big moustache and dance up the aisle to the Village People.”
He has also claimed that the Lib Dems and Labour want to ban him from having sex.
Nigel Farage has declined to dicipline Mr Coburn for his previous remarks, claiming last month after his ‘terrorist’ jibe: “People do make mistakes. I don’t think David Coburn should have done that. But am I going to get terribly exercised about it? No.”
