BREAKING: Tory MP defects to UKIP sparking a crunch by-election in Essex
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...yelection.html
BREAKING: Tory MP Douglas Carswell defects to UKIP and resigns from Parliament sparking a crunch Essex by-election
- Clacton MP resigns from the Conservative Party and Parliament
- Says David Cameron is 'not serious about the changes this country needs'
- Mr Carswell turned a slim 920 majority in 2005 into a comfortable 12,000 lead
- By-election is likely to take place within the next few weeks
- Mr Carswell will become first elected UKIP Member of Parliament if he wins
Quote:
Originally Posted by Daily Mail
Prominent Tory backbencher Douglas Carswell this morning announced he was defecting to UKIP and resigning from Parliament - sparking a crunch by-election.
Mr Carswell's decision is a major blow to David Cameron, coming just nine months before the next general election.
The MP for Clacton, Essex, said his position in the Conservative Party was no longer tenable as Mr Cameron was not serious about reform of the European Union.
He announced that he would be standing for UKIP in the forthcoming by-election which could be held within weeks.
The Clacton MP entered Parliament in 2005, and has frequently rebelled over European issues.
He won his first election by just 920 votes, but was returned in 2010 with a 12,000 majority.
Mr Carswell has a strong personal following in his Clacton constituency after building up his majority in the nine years he has held the seat.
The backbench MP will become the first ever elected member of Parliament for UKIP if he is returned within the next few weeks.
It comes just days after leader Nigel Farage was selected to run for the party in the South Thanet constituency in next year's general election.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Daily Mail
In a bombshell press conference,Mr Carswell lambasted the Prime Minister and senior Conservatives for not being ‘serious about real change’.
Among a list of criticisms, he insisted that the failure to take a stand against the European Union was at the heart of his decision.
‘They are not serious about real change. It's above all the failure to deliver on the promise of political reform that has driven me to be here today,’ he said.
‘Europe's the one continent on the globe that is not growing... Yet who in Westminster, who among our so-called leaders is prepared to envisage real change?’
Mr Carswell said he had been an enthusiastic cheerleader for Mr Cameron's Bloomberg speech, in which he set out proposals for an in-out referendum by 2017 if the Tories are in power after next year's general election.
But he said he did not believe the policy was ‘sincere’, saying the leadership wanted to secure ‘just enough’ to pretend change was happening.
‘No one cheered DC's Bloomberg speech more loudly than me... but there's been nothing since. They haven't thought it through.
‘There is a world of change and opportunity out there... ministers are simply not up to giving us the kind of realignment we need.’
Mr Carswell said it would have been easier for him to ‘muddle along’ as a Tory backbencher until next May, but he wanted to do the ‘honourable thing'.
‘As someone who's always answered directly to the independent-minded people of Essex, there is only one honourable thing for me to do,’ he said.
‘I must seek permission from my boss, the people of Clacton. I will now resign from Parliament and stand for Ukip in the by-election that now follows.’
UKIP’s only MP to date came when Castle Point MP Bob Spink defected from the Conservatives in 2008, although he subsequently stood unsuccessfully as an independent at the 2010 general election.
Mr Carswell was originally elected as the Conservative MP for Harwich in 2005, but was returned in Clacton in 2010 after boundary changes with a majority of over 12,000.
The Tories could be in for a major battle to retain the seat, as Mr Carswell is known as an independent-minded politician and is believed to have a significant personal following.
Following his announcement at the press conference, Mr Carswell said he wanted to see ‘fundamental change’ in British politics.
He went on: ‘We have had a duopoly for many decades. Look at how the country has been run. It has been a competition for cliques to sit on the sofa.
‘We need choice and competition in politics.’
He said part of the appeal of Ukip was the fact it was a mass membership organisation that was the ‘property’ of its members, adding that if he believed the Tory leadership was serious about change he would not have defected.
But he insisted the decision had not been an easy one, adding: ‘I have been a member of the Conservative Party for all my adult life. It is full of wonderful people who want the best for Britain.
‘The problem is that many of those at the top of the Conservative Party are simply not our side. They aren't serious about the change that Britain so desperately needs.
‘Of course they talk the talk before elections. They say what they feel they must say to get our support when they want our support.
‘But on so many issues, on modernising our politics, on recall of MPs, on controlling our borders...on bank reform, on cutting public debt, on an EU referendum, they never actually make it happen.’
He continued: ‘All three of the other parties seem the same. They have got swathes of safe seats, they are run by those who became MPs by working in the offices of MPs.
‘They use pollsters to tell us what to tell the voters. Politics to them is about politicians like them. It is a game, a game of spin, position. First under Tony Blair, then under Gordon Brown, now David Cameron.
‘It is all about the priorities of which ever tiny clique happens to be sitting on the sofa in Downing Street, different cliques, same sofa.
‘Few are animated by principle or by passion. Those that are soon get shuffled out the way.’
A Conservative spokesman said: ‘This is a regrettable and frankly counterproductive decision. As Douglas Carswell said, the only way to get a referendum on the EU is to return a majority Conservative government.’
Is he wrong that there is a tiny clique running the country who are identical in both Labour and the Tories?
Welcome aboard Mr Carswell.
Thoughts?
