Ukip war over Nigel’s missing knighthood
UKIP descended into open civil war last night after the party’s biggest donor vowed to stand against its only MP in the next general election over his alleged failure to get a knighthood for Nigel Farage.
Arron Banks, who has given more than £1million to the Eurosceptic party, said he would stand against Douglas Carswell in 2020.
He was angered after Mr Carswell posted a cheeky late-night tweet saying ‘knight night’ – apparently making light of claims that he played a role in blocking a knighthood for former Ukip leader Mr Farage.
The allegations yesterday triggered an extraordinary bout of infighting, with Mr Carswell summoned to a meeting with the Ukip chairman. He could even be kicked out of the party.
Mr Carswell, the MP for Clacton, defected to Ukip from the Tories in 2014 but has been locked in a bitter dispute with Mr Farage since the 2015 general election when he was the party’s only candidate to win a Commons seat.
Mr Banks, a close ally of Mr Farage, said: ‘This Carswell tweet says it all. Ukip MP or not, I’ll stand against him in Clacton at the next election.’
A later tweet suggested that Mr Banks was taking his challenge to Mr Carswell seriously and was making practical arrangements to prepare an election campaign.
‘We will have a high street shop in Clacton, professional agent appointed soon and I will be rolling my sleeves up,’ tweeted Mr Banks.
Some Ukip figures had hoped Mr Farage would get a knighthood in the New Year’s honours and Mr Carswell was tasked with lobbying government chief whip Gavin Williamson.
But after his nomination was rejected, Mr Carswell joked about it in an email to Ukip peer Lord Pearson.
On December 31 he wrote: ‘Perhaps we might try angling to get Nigel an OBE next time round? For services to headline writers? An MBE, maybe?’
Mr Farage yesterday said he expected Mr Carswell to be kicked out of the party. He said: ‘It’s not just me. A lot of people have been saying it and saying it for a very long time. We nearly got rid of him back in 2015. We didn’t quite have the nerve to do it. I suspect now the party will. I’m not involved. It’s up to them. I’m retired.’
Mr Farage said he tried to kick the MP out when he was leader but he did not have a majority on the party’s ruling national executive committee (NEC).
Ukip chairman Paul Oakden yesterday held a meeting with Mr Carswell to discuss the allegations against him. He will report back to party leader Paul Nuttall, who could seek a a fresh vote of the NEC on whether to expel Mr Carswell.
Before the meeting Mr Oakden said: ‘There is no one in Ukip who should try to block Nigel from getting the honour he quite rightly deserves. Paul is 100 per cent behind the idea. We all support it, we should all be doing what we can to make that a reality. What we need to establish is whether Douglas did or did not facilitate that.’
Asked if Mr Carswell could be thrown out of the party, Mr Oakden said: ‘What I will say is that Paul takes the situation seriously. It is serious enough for me to come down and meet with Douglas about it – what action will be taken we will have to wait and see.’
Last night after his meeting with Mr Oakden Mr Carswell insisted he would not be leaving Ukip. He said: ‘Contrary to a lot of speculation, we had a very polite and amicable meeting. ’
He said the leaked emails showed ‘quite clearly I tried my best to make sure he got an honour that reflects his contribution’. Ukip MEP Bill Etheridge
‘Form the Carswell Party’
told BBC Radio 4’s World at One: ‘The truth is it’s not a party at war, it’s one man – maybe with two or three acolytes – who has gone out of his way to subvert and undermine the leadership, the principles of the party and everything we stand for.
‘All we are saying is ‘‘Look, Douglas, you don’t like what we stand for, you don’t like our principles. Well, go on – go somewhere else. You couldn’t get on with the Tories, you can’t get on with us. Form the Carswell Party and get on with it’’.’
Mr Etheridge said Ukip needed to ‘lance the boil now’, adding: “Really, Douglas should do the decent thing and go.
‘But if he doesn’t, the NEC should remove the whip from him. He’s not Ukip. He doesn’t believe in our principles. He’s made it very clear.’