Ukip donor: Expel Carswell or I’m off
A KEY Ukip donor has warned embattled leader Paul Nuttall that he will abandon the party in the wake of the Stoke by-election fiasco unless he kicks out members who defected from he Tories – including Ukip’s only MP, Douglas Carswell.
In an extraordinary move, Arron Banks said that unless Mr Nuttall agreed to ‘toss out’ the ‘dullards’ as part of an overhaul of the party then Ukip was ‘finished’.
He said: ‘This level of chaos can- not continue. Ukip is meant to be a political party, not a jumble sale’.
Mr Banks, who gave £1 million to Ukip before the General Election and £7million to Nigel Farage’s wing of the Brexit campaign, said Mr Carswell should be stripped of his membership, along with health spokeswoman Suzanne Evans and Welsh leader Neil Hamilton, also former Tories. Last night Ms Evans hit back by saying it would be ‘no great loss’ if Mr Banks severed his ties with the party. The civil war has erupted in the wake of Ukip’s disastrous performance in the Stoke-onTrent by-election, where Mr Nuttall came a distant second to Labour, despite the area voting 70 per cent for Brexit in the EU referendum. Mr Banks told this newspaper that unless Ukip became more professional then the £10,000 he put towards the Stoke campaign would be his last donation: in future, his money would be spent on a new grassroots political movement he was establishing.
‘Ukip should be a well-oiled machine,’ said Mr Banks. ‘If Paul Nuttall doesn’t professionalise Ukip and toss out the Tory cabal then it is finished.
‘These dullards aren’t bringing in Tory votes – Stoke proved that – so what are they for?’