NIGEL FARAGE has dropped bumbling Brexiteer David Coburn.
Yesterday morning, his new Brexit Party unveiled entrepreneur Louis Steadman-Bryce as their number one candidate in Scotland.
Coburn left Ukip earlier this year to throw his lot in with Farage’s new group, but that loyalty has seemingly not been rewarded, with the former art dealer turfed out.
The other Brexit Party candidates for Scotland include Stuart Waiton, the prominent anti-smacking ban campaigner.
Speaking at a press conference in London, Steadman-Bryce said he would “give a voice to over one million people in Scotland that voted for Brexit and don’t currently have a voice there.”
Steadman-Bryce, and his husband Gavin, are health and social care entrepreneurs, whose firms Beyond Homecare, and Kairos Home Health, provide one-to-one care for elderly people.
Steadman-Bryce said: “I’m tired of the media portrayal of the type of person who voted for Brexit. The description out there is quite often that we’re white, we’re homophobic, we’re definitely racist and we didn’t know what we voted for.
“So I stand before you as a gay, black man and I can tell you I definitely knew what I was voting for when I voted for Brexit.”
Unlike Coburn and Ukip, Steadman-Bryce said he supported the right of Holyrood to exist.
Coburn didn’t respond to The National’s calls yesterday.
The SNP’s Alyn Smith said: “Too wacky for Ukip, too wacky for NewKip, what a legacy.”
A spokesman for the Scottish Greens said they would be “well placed to kick out the far right, whichever candidates they pick.”
There are 50 candidates from eight different parties standing in Scotland. Only three of the country’s current six MEPs are standing again, Smith, Labour’s David Martin and Nosheena Mobarik from the Scottish Tories.
The election is due to take place on May 23, but could still be called off if Theresa May can get her Brexit deal through Parliament in the next two weeks.
A senior Government source told the Sun it would be “toxic” for Britain to have to take part in the vote.
“Every day we don’t pass it we get closer to having to take part in European elections. But we’re not there yet.”
There are rumours that the Prime Minister might try and put it back in front of MPs next week, though it wasn’t among the schedule of upcoming business released by the Government yesterday.
Meanwhile, Tommy Robinson, the founder of the English Defence League, has announced plans to stand as an MEP in the European elections.
Robinson will be standing as an independent, despite his close links to Ukip and the far-right For Britain party.
In other news, Buzzfeed revealed that Ukip candidate Carl Benjamin, the YouTuber known as Sargon of Akkad, has repeatedly used the n-word and anti-gay slurs.
He claimed he was an “anti-political correctness entertainer” using “naughty words for fun.”
Labour MP David Lammy tweeted his disgust: “Words cannot express how deeply sad it is that in Britain in 2019 we have people who use the word ‘n*gger’ running to be elected officials.
“This is an ideology of hate. It must be confronted and defeated.”
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