David Coburn

David Adam Coburn (born 11 February 1959) is a Scottish politician and businessman who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Scotland from 2014 to 2019. A former member of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), Coburn was the leader of UKIP Scotland from July 2014 until December 2018.

He joined the Brexit Party in 2019, and stood down as an MEP before the 2019 European Parliament election.

Early life and career Coburn was born in Glasgow and educated at The High School of Glasgow after which he studied law at the University of Leeds but failed to graduate with a degree. He then worked as an art dealer and City of London financial trader before owning a freight company.

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. The main party as a whole, and UKIP Scotland focused on supporting the candidates for the upcoming European elections.

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'."

In April 2015, a 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.

In the 2015 general election, Coburn stood for the Falkirk constituency. During the campaign, he came out in favour of Fracking in the area, in the face of local concerns. He won 3.0% of the vote.

UKIP contested the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, standing list-only candidates in the eight electoral regions. Coburn, himself, was UKIP's lead candidate for the Highlands and Islands region. During the campaign, Coburn was accused of 'hand-picking' candidates for the different regions. He denied this, claiming that UKIP's director, Paul Oakden, would be selecting candidates instead. Oakden disputed this, telling members in a leaked email that: "“The NEC, who will ultimately decide the final lists have determined that the UKIP Leader in Scotland should devise a list, including candidate rankings for each region of Scotland.” Ultimately, the party was unsuccessful in securing any seats, receiving 2% of list votes in total. In Coburn's own region, UKIP polled 5,344 votes (2.6%), finishing sixth.

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

In the 2017 general election, Coburn unsuccessfully ran for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, securing just 1.2% of the vote and losing his deposit in the race.

On 7 December 2018, Coburn quit UKIP and became an independent MEP. Following the 2019 general election, Coburn applied to join the Scottish Conservatives but was rejected on the instruction of party leader Jackson Carlaw.

Coburn's name appeared in documents presented during the trial of Nathan Gill, former MEP and Brexit Party leader in Wales. 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.

As of November 2025, Coburn was living in France.