Ukip put young nurse to stand against Alex Salmond in General Election

UKIP will put the NHS at the heart of its General Election drive in Scotland, with a young nurse who will stand against Alex Salmond among the candidates unveiled yesterday.

Emily Santos who will take on Alex SalmondPH

Emily Santos who will take on Alex Salmond

Nigel Farage was due to launch the ­party’s campaign north of the Border via video link from London but his personal address had to be cancelled due to “technical issues”.

Despite this setback, Ukip’s Scottish MEP David Coburn was in typically ­upbeat mood at the event in Glasgow. The party plans to contest 40 of Scotland’s 59 parliamentary seats, with Mr Coburn insisting this will be “the most unpredictable election in living memory”.

One of the new faces is Emily Santos, a 26-year-old from Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, who will contest the Gordon seat against the former First Minister.

The seat is currently held by the Liberal Democrats, although candidate Christine Jardine is second favourite to Mr ­Salmond.

Yesterday, Ms Santos said: “I work in a community hospital just outside Aberdeen. I know what it is like for the health service now. The NHS is something I am passionate about and know a lot of. That is my ticket, if you like. I am not daunted at all by the fact I am standing against Mr Salmond. I’m looking forward to it.

“I think it’ll be a challenge, but I’ve got a great team around me so we’ll just take things as they go and see how we get on. Alex Salmond has done nothing to save our health service and I’ll be sure to point that out. He and his party squandered away millions to campaign for separation when that money could have gone into providing better services.”

Mr Coburn, who will stand for the Falkirk berth held by independent MP Eric Joyce, insisted that Ms Santos had as good a chance of winning the seat as any of their other candidates. He said: “She has a good reason to have a go at Salmond and quite frankly she’ll do a very good job. I think she’d be an extremely capable MP.

“Emily is not claiming to be a political expert but she does know the health ­service and will go to town with that. So she may well knock him out – she may stop him getting elected. That’s our objective.” The MEP insisted that the growing ­support for Ukip in Scotland could become one of the biggest stories of the election north of the Border.

He said: “I would not like to predict how many seats we are hoping to win but let’s just say that not many people believed I’d have a chance in the European elections and look at me now. I am one of the only MEPs whose name the people of Scotland actually remember.”

Referring to rumours Mr Coburn had planned to stand in Gordon, an SNP spokeswoman said: “David Coburn obviously knew he was going to get short shrift from the people of North-east Scotland, which is is why he is running scared.”

Would you like to receive news notifications from Daily Express?