The leader of UKIP Scotland has insisted he's not a failure in politics and will be able to keep his deposit in the upcoming election, at a manifesto launch where he also declared that British people are less xenophobic than the French.

David Coburn, who's been unsuccessful in every Scottish election campaign since he became an MEP and UKIP's only elected representative in Scotland in 2014, launched his manifesto at a bizarre event in the city centre of Edinburgh on Wednesday.

The launch – attended by around a dozen journalists, four candidates, and one man who told BuzzFeed News he was not a member of the party but came along with a friend – saw Coburn take aim at Nicola Sturgeon, Ruth Davidson, and the town where he's standing for election.

After the younger male UKIP candidates had fetched a pint from the upstairs bar in the venue – a private members' club adorned with military memorabilia – Coburn burst into the room with his party's chairman, Calum Walker. "Good evening, everyone," began Walker, just after 2pm.

Coburn loudly launched into an at-times confusing speech, for which he appeared to have notes. He spoke in support of the continuation of the NHS (which he said he needed now as "bits were starting to drop off [him]"), dismissed the SNP manifesto as "unreadable gobbledegook", and wrongly and repeatedly insisted UKIP was the only party against another referendum on Scottish independence.