Ukip politician David Coburn holds 'absolutely utterly disgusting' views on immigrants, says SNP's Nicola Sturgeon
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Version 0 of 1. Scotland’s First Minister has branded Ukip’s most senior politician in Scotland “absolutely utterly disgusting” for allegedly holding xenophobic views against migrants. After David Coburn blamed migrants for a number of problems in the second Scottish leaders debate Nicola Sturgeon told the audience: “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. Turning to him, she said: “You are a disgrace.” Ms Sturgeon was in part referring to an incident in which Mr Coburn compared SNP justice minister Humza Yousef to convicted terrorist Abu Hamza. SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon also accused the Tories of 'driving people into poverty' Last month Mr Coburn, Ukip’s only MEP in Scotland, referred to the country’s Justice Minister as ‘Humza Yousaf, or as I call him, Abu Hamza’ in a telephone conversation. Mr Coburn insisted that the remarks were off-the-record but faced calls to resign, which he shrugged off. Wednesday's debate was broadcast live on BBC News and followed an earlier debate which was broadcast live on STV. Ms Sturgeon was joined by the other members of the panel in her criticism of the Ukip representative. Jim Murphy, the leader of Scottish Labour, told Mr Coburn to “stop demonising people” and characterised Ukip’s political philosophy as “The immigrants are to blame for everything”. Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, added: “I support both Humza Yousaf and Nicola Sturgeon in their stance against his bigotry.” The party leaders received significant applause for their criticism of the Ukip politician. |