Another of Farage's friends has pro-Putin views

When Nathan Gill, Reform’s former leader in Wales, was jailed last month for taking bribes in return for making pro-Russia speeches in the European Parliament, the party was keen to stress he was “one rotten apple” and absolutely not indicative of wider pro-Putin sentiment among those leader Nigel Farage has fraternised with.

Alas now questions are being asked about the views of David Coburn, a former leader of Farage’s old outfit UKIP who went on to become an MEP and member of the Brexit Party.

Scottish investigative journalism outlet The Ferret has been probing Coburn’s historic utterances and found that he has had a strange propensity to spout pro-Kremlin lines and propaganda. There is, of course, no suggestion that he has ever done anything illegal.

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As long ago as 2012 Coburn was critical of the EU’s approach to Russia, writing on the then Twitter that “EUcrats stick their noses into everything” including “Russia’s affairs”. A year later he was praising the Russian autocrat, writing how “Putin’s confidence and [the] way he lectures [the] US admin[istration] on democracy has given back pride to Russia”, calling for a UK prime minister who would “stick up for its citizens the way Putin does”.

In July 2014 Coburn was elected as a Ukip MEP and appointed as party leader in Scotland. That September, he claimed the EU did not understand Putin, but “will when the tanks roll in – just sayin [sic] #Ukraine”. In the following months he told fellow MEPs that EU “interference in Ukraine was close to causing war”, and opposed the EU’s “foolish” association agreements with Georgia and Moldova.

In 2018, Coburn challenged European Parliament discussions around “so-called Russian propaganda in EU countries”, adding that he was “more concerned with EU propaganda than the clunky Russian version”. He made reference to RT, the Russian propaganda channel on which he was a regular pundit and which was later fined for breaching UK impartiality rules. The network gave Ukip “a voice” when the party was not covered by the BBC, and was “defending freedom”, which the EU aimed to “close down”, he said, adding: “So thank god for them.”

Again, no suggestion that Coburn, who is now believed to live in France, has done anything wrong. But how odd yet another old Farage hand has held such views!