Ukip struggles to gain ground in Scotland

It looks like good timing: Ukip is campaigning for a breakthrough in the Scottish parliament just as the debate heats up across the UK on the merits of EU membership, the party’s core issue.

But any boost to its hopes in Scotland appear to be cancelled out by the chaos within the party and questions over its colourful and outspoken Scottish leader David Coburn.

In recent weeks a succession of Ukip officials have spoken out, or even resigned, over Mr Coburn’s domineering style and allegedly unfair control of candidate selection.

Alan Melville, a Ukip candidate, this week called for Mr Coburn to step down, saying the party was close to “all-out civil war”. But Mr Coburn, who won Ukip’s first Scottish seat in the European parliament in 2014, dismissed the chorus of criticism as unfounded griping.

“There are no internal disputes,” he said. “There is no civil war. The only sound of civil war is the sound of people like Melville shooting themselves in the foot.”

Polls suggest a sizeable minority in Scotland would like to leave the EU, but Ukip has struggled to gain ground north of the border. In last year’s general election, Ukip won just 1.6 per cent of the vote in Scotland.

The system used for Scottish elections means that Ukip could win one or more seats at Holyrood with a relatively small share of Thursday’s poll and some analysts said Mr Coburn could become the party’s first MSP.

But rival parties said Mr Coburn only has a shaky grasp of policy. In a BBC debate, for example, he repeatedly answered a question on welfare policy by talking about the health system.

Mr Coburn said the moment was an example of BBC bias that he says is skewing the Scottish election. Broadcasters have also blocked Ukip from representing the case for EU exit during the campaign, he complains. “I am considering tearing up my BBC licence,” he said.

A candidate in the Highlands and Islands, he said a top Ukip priority is pushing for subsidies for ferries in the region. “You cannot do that within the EU. It is not possible. We have to get out of the EU in order to subsidise our ferries,” he says.

The Scottish government already subsidises many ferry fares and the European Commission in 2008 decided that “public financing for the operation of ferry shipping services in Scotland is compatible with state aid rules”.

But pressed on this point Mr Coburn is unapologetic. “That is going to be more and more difficult to implement,” he said.