Scots are too “frightened” to say they will vote for Ukip or back leaving the EU, according to MEP David Coburn.
Mr Coburn, Ukip’s only elected parliamentarian in Scotland, dismissed polls suggesting the majority of Scots favour staying in the EU as “SNP blather and havers”.
He was speaking on a campaign visit to Pittenweem harbour where he discussed the upcoming referendum on EU membership with local fishermen.
Mr Coburn described the SNP leadership’s support for the European Union as “a lot of nonsense”, and said he hoped his party would get as many as seven MSPs elected in May’s Holyrood election to “cause trouble” in the Scottish Parliament.
He said: “I’m going to ask the questions no-one else dares ask, such as why the Scottish Government, the so-called SNP, who are supposed to care about Scottish fishing and Scottish fishermen, why don’t they want to get out of the EU? The reason why is they’re not a nationalist party at all, they’re just a European regional party.
“They want to get out of the UK but they want us to be part of Europe.
“I’ve had loads of people who are in the SNP say they are going to vote for me because they’re sick and tired of the policy of the high heidians.
“What’s independent about being part of the EU? Instead of being told what to do by London, by their reckoning we’ll be told what to do by Europe.
“If we left the European Union more power will be brought back to the Scottish Parliament than would have been brought back if we’d left the UK.
“If we leave the European Union there will be less chance of the UK breaking up, if we leave the EU that’s the end of Scottish nationalism.”
Opinion polls have suggested a majority of voters in Scotland would vote to remain in the EU.
Mr Coburn said: “That’s all SNP blather and havers. It depends what you ask people, opinion polls depend on the questions.
“I don’t think it’s true, most people in Scotland are frightened of saying what they actually believe because the SNP will close your business down, the SNP will make sure you don’t get planning permission. That’s what they fear, whether it’s true or not I can’t say but I can tell you one thing, that’s what people fear.
“When I knock on the door and ask people are you going to vote Ukip, are you for Brexit, they look left and right and say ‘Yes we’re going to vote for you but don’t tell anybody’. Now that’s terrifying in a nation where that’s the case.”
