Ukip without Carswell

SIR – Douglas Carswell says he is quitting Ukip because the party has achieved what it was set up to do (report, March 26). On the contrary, now is the time for Ukip to build on that triumph – not to give up.

Ukip has long ceased to be a oneissue party: its 2015 manifesto set out a full slate of fully costed policies. But to grow, it must win over voters across the country, and that means appealing to both the entrepreneur and the blue-collar worker.

Roger Smith

Shefford, Bedfordshire

SIR – Douglas Carswell will be no loss to Ukip. He was a disruptive presence and the party is well rid of him.

The real scandal is that Ukip polled a significant number of votes in the last election, yet it now has no MPs. For the so-called mother of parliaments, this is a scandalous failure to give a voice to a large section of the electorate.

Mick Ferrie

Mawnan Smith, Cornwall

SIR – I joined Ukip shortly after Mr Carswell and largely because of him. I have no time for the other Tory defector, Mark Reckless, or for the party’s other leaders after Nigel Farage.

Only a few months ago I voted for Paul Nuttall as leader, believing he could win any by-election in which he was a candidate, but he has turned out to be as useless a party leader as Jeremy Corbyn – only without his modesty – and his performance at Stoke was dismal.

It is about time that Ukip stopped pretending it won the campaign to leave the EU on its own. Plenty of Tories also helped in my constituency, while at a national level the Labour MP Gisela Stuart performed splendidly.

Chris Minter

London SW6