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Douglas Carswell quitting UKIP | Douglas Carswell quitting UKIP |
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UKIP's Douglas Carswell is quitting the party to become an independent MP for Clacton and says he is doing so "amicably". | UKIP's Douglas Carswell is quitting the party to become an independent MP for Clacton and says he is doing so "amicably". |
Mr Carswell defected from the Conservatives to join UKIP in 2014. | Mr Carswell defected from the Conservatives to join UKIP in 2014. |
He said he joined the party because he wanted the UK to leave the EU and now "that is going to happen, I have decided that I will be leaving UKIP". | |
Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage had demanded Mr Carswell quit, accusing him of "actively working against UKIP". | Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage had demanded Mr Carswell quit, accusing him of "actively working against UKIP". |
Party donor Arron Banks had suggested he could stand against Mr Carswell at the next election, amid a long-running feud over UKIP's future direction and strategy. | |
UKIP has not formally responded to Mr Carswell's announcement. | |
But on Twitter, Mr Banks posted a smiley face emoji and a green tick. | |
Writing on his website, Mr Carswell, the party's only MP, said: "I will leave UKIP amicably, cheerfully and in the knowledge that we won." | |
He added: "I will not be switching parties, nor crossing the floor to the Conservatives, so do not need to call a by election, as I did when switching from the Conservatives to UKIP. I will simply be the Member of Parliament for Clacton, sitting as an independent." | |
Mr Carswell said: "I will be putting all of my effort into tackling some of the local problems affecting the NHS in our part of Essex... Local comes first." | |
Mr Carswell, 45, first entered the Commons in 2005 as MP for Harwich, defeating Labour's candidate by just 920 votes. By 2010 he defeated the same opponent by 12,000 votes - although boundary changes had seen the seat renamed Clacton. | |
He took the seat with a 3,437 majority at the general election in 2015. |