David Coburn (politician)

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David Coburn
MEP
File:David Coburn 2014.jpg
Coburn in 2014
Leader of the Scottish
UK Independence Party
In office
1 July 2014 – 6 December 2018
Preceded by The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley
Succeeded by Donald MacKay
Member of the European Parliament
for Scotland
In office
1 July 2014 – 1 July 2019[1][2]
Preceded by George Lyon
Succeeded by Sheila Ritchie
Personal details
Born (1959-02-11) 11 February 1959 (age 65)
Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
Political party Brexit Party (2019–present)
Independent (2018–2019)
UKIP (2008–2018)
Education University of Leeds

David Adam Coburn[3] (born 11 February 1959) is a Scottish politician and businessman who served as Member of the European Parliament for Scotland from 2014 to 2019.

He was previously an art dealer and a financial trader. He was the Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in Scotland until he quit in December 2018.[4]

Personal life

Coburn was born in Glasgow, Scotland.[5] He studied law at the University of Leeds, but failed to graduate with a degree.[6] He worked as an art dealer and City of London trader before owning a freight company.[6]

Coburn is gay. He speaks fluent French and conversational Arabic.[7]

Political career

Coburn contested the South-east London constituency of Old Bexley and Sidcup in 2010, and finished in fifth place with 1,532 votes. He also stood in Bexley and Bromley at the 2012 London Assembly election, finishing in fourth place. 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.[8][9]

Coburn ran in the 2014 European Parliament election to become a Member of the European Parliament for the Scotland constituency, as a member of UKIP Scotland. At the end of 2013, 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 UKIP leader, Nigel Farage, fired Lord Christopher Monckton via email.[10] The main party as a whole, and UKIP Scotland focused on supporting the candidates for the upcoming European elections.[10] After Coburn won the seat,[11] he was appointed leader of UKIP Scotland.[12] His victory made him UKIP's second openly gay MEP, after Nikki Sinclaire.[6][13]

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'."[14][15] UKIP's Scottish chairman Arthur (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."[14]

In the face of local concerns Coburn came out in favour of fracking in Falkirk, the constituency he stood for in the 2015 General Election.[16]

In 2015, Coburn compared Scottish government minister Humza Yousaf to the convicted terrorist Abu Hamza, later apologising and calling it a "joke". The then UKIP leader Nigel Farage called it a "joke in bad taste" and the then President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, stated that whereas the remarks were "not worthy of any elected member", he could not act on remarks made outside parliament. Parliamentary candidate Tim Wilson quit the party in response, saying he had been "systematically gagged by the party whip and forbidden to speak about Islam favourably".[17]

In April 2015, a Wikipedia account operated by Coburn's office was blocked indefinitely for edit warring over Coburn's Wikipedia article. Coburn claimed he had directed one of his staff to make the changes in order to clear the page of "garbage" and "nonsense"; some news outlets attribute those edits to Coburn himself.[15][18]

In July 2016, Coburn declared his support for Steven Woolfe in UKIP's leadership election to replace Nigel Farage.[19]

At the 2017 snap general election, Coburn unsuccessfully ran for the Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency, securing just 1.2% of the vote and losing his deposit in the race.[20]

On 7 December 2018, Coburn quit UKIP and became an Independent MEP.[4] He joined the Brexit Party in February 2019. In the UK European Election of 2019, he did not seek re-election.

References

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External links