BREAKING: Tory MP defects to UKIP sparking a crunch by-election in Essex

[-:Undertaker:-]

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

MORE here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCbtW83Hcpc

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.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage this morning welcomed Mr Carswell's defection from the Tories


UKIP is targeting a host of seats in the south and east of England in a bid to break into Parliament at the next election

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?

[Kardan]

Do you think he will win? I mean, he has a healthy lead, but surely that becomes pretty irrelevant now? If the MP I supported defected from my own party to another (especially UKIP), I for sure wouldn't vote for them again. I suppose it depends on how many conservatives want to switch over I suppose, but surely you'd expect that number to be pretty low.

[-:Undertaker:-]

Do you think he will win? I mean, he has a healthy lead, but surely that becomes pretty irrelevant now?

Well, apparently he built Clacton into a 12,000 majority (2010) from 900-something (2005) seat which means that his swing at 2010 was way above the national average. According also to BBC reporters on Twitter, he's very popular locally so he has that going for him. It's a risk but who knows - my guess also is that he will have a lot of members of the local Conservative Association who will go with him (and he'll have talked to them before this) so he's already got a campaign team on the ground.

Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB · 30m

The May 22nd Euro election results from Tendring council area that includes Clacton

UKIP 48%
CON 25%
LAB 13%
LD 2%
OTH 12%

If he manages to retain his seat then it wouldn't surprise me if it convinces other MPs who are thinking of switching.

If the MP I supported defected from my own party to another (especially UKIP), I for sure wouldn't vote for them again. I suppose it depends on how many conservatives want to switch over I suppose, but surely you'd expect that number to be pretty low.

So in other words, you'd vote for a pig as long as it had a Labour rosette stuck to it.

And we wonder why our MPs are of such low quality/don't have any principles, it's exactly because of that.

[Kardan]

Well, apparently he built Clacton into a 12,000 majority (2010) from 900-something (2005) seat which means that his swing at 2010 was way above the national average. Apparently to BBC reporters on Twitter, he's very popular locally so he has that going for him. It's a risk but who knows - my guess also is that he will have a lot of members of the local Conservative Association who will go with him (and he'll have talked to them before this) so he's already got a campaign team on the ground.



If he manages to retain his seat then it wouldn't surprise me if it convinces other MPs who are thinking of switching.



So in other words, you'd vote for a pig as long as it had a Labour rosette stuck to it.

And we wonder why our MPs are of such low quality/don't have any principles, it's exactly because of that.

For me it's about policy. I don't agree with a majority of UKIP's policies, so if the person I voted for (because I agreed with their policies) changed to another party (obviously because they have different policy ideas), then I wouldn't vote for them. Simple as that.

And no, I wouldn't just vote for whoever has the Labour rosette - I've voted for the Lib Dems in the past because (at the time at least) they had the better policies.

[-:Undertaker:-]

For me it's about policy. I don't agree with a majority of UKIP's policies, so if the person I voted for (because I agreed with their policies) changed to another party (obviously because they have different policy ideas), then I wouldn't vote for them. Simple as that.

I'm not talking specifically about Ukip here. You do realise that switching parties doesn't actually mean somebody has had a sudden overnight conversion, right? Believe it or not, some MPs - and Carswell has been one of them - don't vote with their party all of the time and often defy the whips which leads to them being relegated to the backbenches but at least they vote for what they believe in. Kate Hoey MP (Labour) is another one like that, and indeed I would probably vote for her if I lived in her seat.

Give me an independent MP who votes against the party whips anyday than a London-centric clone parachuted in from Westminster.

And no, I wouldn't just vote for whoever has the Labour rosette - I've voted for the Lib Dems in the past because (at the time at least) they had the better policies.

But you've just said you wouldn't vote for an MP you liked if they dared switch from Zanu Nu Labour.

What if they switched as a matter of principle to another party? You'd vote instead to replace a principled MP who you thought had been good for your area with a Labour clone parachuted in from London on the basis of staying loyal to the party?

[Kardan]

I'm not talking specifically about Ukip here. You do realise that switching parties doesn't actually mean somebody has had a sudden overnight conversion, right? Believe it or not, some MPs - and Carswell has been one of them - don't vote with their party all of the time and often defy the whips which leads to them being relegated to the backbenches but at least they vote for what they believe in. Kate Hoey MP (Labour) is another one like that, and indeed I would probably vote for her if I lived in her seat.

Give me an independent MP who votes against the party whips anyday than a London-centric clone parachuted in from Westminster.



But you've just said you wouldn't vote for an MP you liked if they dared switch from Zanu Nu Labour.

What if they switched as a matter of principle to another party? You'd vote instead to replace a principled MP who you thought had been good for your area with a Labour clone parachuted in from London on the basis of staying loyal to the party?

Of course (in regards to your first point), just that in my case, the party I support has never been the MP in my area, so all I hear is what they will do, and they've never had the chance to actually carry it out, so I'm speaking pretty much hypothetically here. But yes, my vote depends on the policies of the MP, rather than the party - so say I was a loyal conservative voter with typical conservative views, I imagine I wouldn't vote for someone standing for the conservative party that say, voted alongside Labour MPs for example.

On your second point, when did I mention Labour? You brought that up. I simply said 'my party'. And no, as I've said, I would vote based on policies. But I imagine if I was originally voting for say, a Lib Dem MP that had Lib Dem views, and they then switched to another party - that would signify a change in views that would not represent me anymore, hence why I would change my vote.

[-:Undertaker:-]

Of course (in regards to your first point), just that in my case, the party I support has never been the MP in my area, so all I hear is what they will do, and they've never had the chance to actually carry it out, so I'm speaking pretty much hypothetically here. But yes, my vote depends on the policies of the MP, rather than the party - so say I was a loyal conservative voter with typical conservative views, I imagine I wouldn't vote for someone standing for the conservative party that say, voted alongside Labour MPs for example.

Fair enough, that's better then - you came across that you'd vote Labour no matter what.

On your second point, when did I mention Labour? You brought that up. I simply said 'my party'. And no, as I've said, I would vote based on policies. But I imagine if I was originally voting for say, a Lib Dem MP that had Lib Dem views, and they then switched to another party - that would signify a change in views that would not represent me anymore, hence why I would change my vote.

I know who you vote for and support, mentioning the Liberal Democrats - who even my family had voted for in the past tactically - doesn't really prove anything considering a lot of people simply voted them to keep either red or blue out in their area.

[Kardan]

Fair enough, that's better then - you came across that you'd vote Labour no matter what.



I know who you vote for and support, mentioning the Liberal Democrats - who even my family had voted for in the past tactically - doesn't really prove anything considering a lot of people simply voted them to keep either red or blue out in their area.

I may support Labour at the moment, but my comments were talking generally (as in, I would do the same if I voted for Lib Dem/UKIP etc), just like you said you weren't talking specifically about UKIP earlier, I wasn't talking specifically about Labour

[Inseriousity.]

The essex area in general seems to be the most pro-UKIP area so UKIP will probably be really pleased at this opportunity and totally embarrassed if they still lose.

[GommeInc]

The essex area in general seems to be the most pro-UKIP area so UKIP will probably be really pleased at this opportunity and totally embarrassed if they still lose.

Sort of. This does seem to be the case for the Clacton area. It's mostly a Conservative stronghold with a few UKIP qualities (that area of the Conservatives that holds a few UKIP values on immigration and "down to earth" politics). That said, I'm amazed Colchester is still a Lib Dem area :/

UKIP did really well in this area and still do. They're not career politicians and instead have it as a side job, which mirrors the way Essex people think to some degree. In my area for the council elections, the UKIP candidates promised they will listen to people even if they do not win and that has been to their advantage as, quite often, they're the ones confronted to look into issues and pressure elected councillors. Heck, for my area the only convincing candidate was a UKIP candidate that knew my area even existed, and knew that we pay a lot towards the council but don't have a loud voice.