David Coburn quits UKIP

UKIP Scotland leader David Coburn has quit the party, saying it has “been infiltrated by people with an alternative agenda”.

The resignation comes after UKIP leader Gerard Batten appointed English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson as an advisor, with Coburn warning the party was moving to adopt an “anti-Islam platform”.

Coburn, who was elected in 2014 at the European Election, was the sole UKIP MEP for Scotland.

He said: "As a unionist, I abhor English nationalism as much as I abhor Scottish nationalism.

"The party has been infiltrated by people with an alternative agenda, which is not the one on which I stood when I was elected and sadly does not represent the values for which UKIP once stood.

"I did not run on an anti-Islam platform. Unfortunately, this seems to be the direction that UKIP is taking - obsessing about this issue to the exclusion of all else at a time when we might lose the Brexit we fought so hard for."

Robinson’s appointment also led Nigel Farage to resign, with the former UKIP leader saying the party was “pretty obsessed with the issue of Islam”.