THE leader of UKIP in Scotland has blamed “dreadful careerists” for the party’s poor showing at last week’s Holyrood elections amid claims members are deserting the party.

In an email to party activists, David Coburn MEP abdicates responsibility for a failure to return a single MSP, despite standing 26 candidates in eight regions.

UKIP polled around two per cent of the vote in each area, meaning the party lost eight £500 deposits – a total loss of £4,000.

READ MORE: Holyrood 2016: The story of an election Defeat on the fringes for Ukip, Rise and Solidarity

There are 1,000 UKIP members in Scotland, according to the party, but insiders claim that figure may now have dropped to around 600 – a figure dismissed as “false” by party bosses.

The Herald:

UKIP Scotland was riven with divisions ahead of the May 5 ballot after it emerged that Mr Coburn had personally selected and ranked candidates.

Selections were suspended by the party hierarchy in London two years ago during a period of infighting.

Several candidates and senior officials quit the party before the election and it has been claimed that around a third of members have also walked away in recent weeks, prompting speculation UKIP is a spent force in Scotland.

David Coburn MEP, UKIP’s only elected politician in Scotland, has moved to rally the remaining members with an email sent over the weekend.

In it, he claimed the Scottish media had “done their best to ignore or trash us” and condemned "disgraceful” television stations for failing to offer the fringe party more airtime.

READ MORE: Holyrood 2016: The story of an election Defeat on the fringes for Ukip, Rise and Solidarity

Mr Coburn also suggested that he intentionally made glaring policy errors in public to draw attention to the party.

“By being controversial and colourful I have been told by the press I managed to get as much publicity as Sturgeon to the annoyance of the other party leaders,” he wrote.

“One man's deliberate ‘gaffe’ is another man's publicity opportunity.”

A party spokesman suggested leader Nigel Farage backed the tactic and insisted the media in Scotland had to “effectively be forced into giving us any coverage by David making the news as interesting as possible”.

In his email Mr Coburn also issued a thinly veiled threat those who spoke out against him ahead of the Holyrood elections.

He said: “We were let down by a tiny group of dreadful careerists putting themselves above the party's interests…they will be dealt with.”

A party spokesman said the leader in Scotland was referring to disciplinary procedures which will now be used “to rid the party of anyone that deliberately set out to cause the party harm during the campaign”.

Former aide to David Coburn, Robert Malyn, who was a candidate on UKIP’s West of Scotland regional list, said: “This email is announcement of another Stalinist-style purge of his critics and presumably anyone who does not toe the party line. It will see the end of UKIP in Scotland.

“Mr Coburn is a lame duck leader for the next three years. If we vote for a Brexit he'll be gone by 2018 and if we don't it’s likely that the Greens will take his seat, unless UKIP members in Scotland get the chance to deselect him and replace him with someone more credible.

“Basically UKIP is no longer fit for purpose and for that reason many have now left the party.”

Former candidate, Euan Blockley, quit UKIP for the Scottish Conservatives weeks before the Holyrood election.

He said: “When I was a UKIP member I had only the party’s best interests at heart. Credible candidates were then betrayed by a UKIP top brass that is completely disconnected from the party membership.

“The fact David Coburn is claiming that I and others are self-serving sounds like hypocrisy and is laughable.”

A former senior party official in Scotland, who asked not to be named, said: “UKIP is now dead in Scotland and will not be revived. The NEC (national Executive Committee) killed UKIP's prospects in Scotland by empowering Coburn and a handful of his sycophants.

“But with members leaving in droves - lucky to be 600 in Scotland now - what's to lead?

“His threats to discipline opponents will result in more mess for the central party. Coburn is totally marginalised with the overwhelming majority of active campaigners who lined up to chat with the press about the inner machinations of Coburn's circle.

READ MORE: Holyrood 2016: The story of an election Defeat on the fringes for Ukip, Rise and Solidarity

“He and UKIP Scotland have become an irrelevance, if they weren't already.”

A spokesman for UKIP dismissed criticism of the leader in Scotland and said “tactical voting” squeezed the UKIP vote.

He said: “Voters reached for the nearest bludgeon to prevent another independence referendum, and that was the Tory party - their plan worked.”

He added: “Our history is one of never giving up fighting for what is in the best interests of the British people. We are an emerging party, in a complex political landscape. We will continue, grow and get stronger.”