Carswell ‘joined Ukip to sabotage Farage’
EX-TORY MP Douglas Carswell defected to Ukip in a bizarre plot to sabotage Nigel Farage’s ‘toxic’ leadership, according to a new book.
It says Carswell ‘fooled’ the Ukip leader into letting him join the party to stop his ‘awful’ views on race deterring middle-of-the-road voters from backing Brexit.
And Carswell secretly wrecked Farage’s bid to lead the official Vote Leave campaign in the referendum for the same reason.
The extraordinary claims are made in Brexit Club, by journalist and Ukip expert Owen Bennett, who says Carswell decided it was his ‘national duty’ to ‘neutralise’ Farage.
When Carswell quit the Tories in 2014 and held a by-election in his Clacton seat in Ukip colours, Farage gave him a hero’s welcome.
But Bennett says Carswell had in fact tricked him. A plot was hatched at London’s Tate Britain gallery by Carswell and Tory Euro MP Daniel Hannan to ‘undermine’ the Ukip leader from within.
Carswell says polls proved that ‘the better Farage did, the less support there was for leaving the EU’ – the ‘Farage paradox’ as they called it.
Carswell says: ‘Angry, nativist Ukip risked being so toxic that if it ran the referendum it would do to the Eurosceptic cause what kryptonite did to Superman. That could not be allowed to happen.’
Bennett reveals the plotters decided ‘someone had to infiltrate Ukip and neutralise the party and its leader.’ Hannan says: ‘Douglas felt he could hold his seat under pretty much any colours and prevent Ukip losing us the referendum with a negative campaign.’
Bennett says Carswell was forced to admit defeat in his subversive war on Farage when he became ‘increasingly blunt’ on immigration. However, he consoled himself by claiming credit for later plotting with Vote Leave chiefs to wreck Farage’s hopes of running the official anti-EU campaign.
By contrast, Carswell campaigned in Vote Leave alongside his former Tory colleague Boris Johnson.
Farage and Carswell have clashed ever since his defection, and the new disclosures could deepen the rift. Despite stepping down as leader, Farage remains hugely popular in the party, while there have been persistent reports Carswell could rejoin the Tories.