UKIP councillors in Crewe and Nantwich said today a Tory MP’s defection to their party is a “fantastic boost”.
Douglas Carswell (pictured) announced today he has quit as Conservative MP for Clacton, resigned from the party and defected to UKIP.
His resignation has sparked a by-election – and he says he will stand as a UKIP candidate to try and win it back in a bid to be the country’s first UKIP MP in the Commons.
Cllr Richard Lee, UKIP’s election candidate for Crewe & Nantwich constituency, said the announcement was a “fantastic boost”.
“This clearly demonstrates UKIP are no longer a party of single issue, but a credible force in British Politics,” added Cllr Lee, who is chairman of the UKIP Crewe and Nantwich branch.
“I am personally delighted Douglas has taken the brave step of resigning his position as an MP, and will now fight again for his seat in a by-election for UKIP, rather than just cross the floor, as all others have done for the last 30 years.
“This is a landmark in UKIP history, and could well signal the start of many more to come.
“The mainstream media is already talking in terms of the phrase ‘doing a Carswell’ as being a description of MPs resigning and coming over to UKIP.”
Nantwich Town Cllr Stuart Hutton and Willaston and Rope Cllr Brian Silvester both defected from the Tories to UKIP in the last two years.
Cllr Silvester said today: “I am really pleased Carswell has joined UKIP and I think others will follow.
“He realises Cameron is a phoney and is not serious about a EU Referendum.
“I am confident UKIP MPs will be elected in 2015 and many UKIP councillors in Cheshire East because of the planning fiasco that gets worse by the week.”
Mr Carswell, a maverick Eurosceptic backbencher, said he wanted to “shake up” the cosy Westminster “clique”.
He added he did not believe Prime Minister David Cameron was “serious about the change we need”.
(pic courtesy of Steve Punter, usage under creative commons licence)
Steve, as you said in your opening statement to John I now say to you, “You say plenty of people, what you mean Steve is, ‘you can see past the blinkered “pepperpot” opinions!’ We all have a right to an opinion without the need for insults. What about sensible debate? You seem to be speaking on behalf of the other three parties in your attack on UKIP which is in line with the point Douglas Carswell made that the big three are, as Cameron might say,”All in it together,” because they all say pretty much the same thing. The Frankfurt-Marxist school of 1923 is a very interesting read and shows many similarities to the LibLabCon, of middle classdom gone mad. MP’s are supposed to be representatives of their Constituency not themselves (expenses, cash for honours, cash for questions, cash for all types of favours and helping their middle class chums, etc.) The best people that can represent the working classes, i.e. the majority, in the UK are the working classes themselves and this is why we are growing in popularity because the majority of us are working class. As for disillusioned Tories or Labourites, I left the Tories 6 years ago but didn’t join UKIP straight away. I had been with the Conservative party for 22 years but it was mainly down to my grandfather being a local councillor, family loyalty and personal circumstances. Hardworking activists got nowhere but armchair middle class tories soon rose through the ranks. When I did join UKIP it was because I bothered to sit down and read their manifesto in 2013 and it was at this point I realised something extraordinary. I was a disillusioned ukipper all this time. There was no alternative in the 80’s and 90’s that actually spoke my language and, I dare say, the language of many people who are also disillusioned with mainstream politics. Now there is but support takes time and, just as Kier Hardy’s vision of the Labour party took 20 years to develop before coming to power, it may take a similar amount of time for UKIP to do the same. UKIP became a fully rounded party in 2010 with a whole raft of policies on every issue, however, because of the amount of disillusionment with todays electorate it might happen sooner rather than later. I would be interested to know what the blinkered opinions are that you speak of? Secondly, to say that that there are very few intelligent supporters is an insult directed at anyone that is pro UKIP and typical of the usual attitude of those that cannot or dare not have a debate for fear of being exposed in the face of the majority. What I would say to those that don’t like being insulted is, show the politicians who fear our increasing growth of support that the more they ignore us and resort to dirty tactics, in the hope we’ll just go away, the more we’ll vote for the only party that does have working class peoples interests at heart.
Apologies if I was rude, not meant.. Just being honest. You have sort of proved my point: UKIP appeal to the working class in the same way as the Tories did under Thatcher. They validate the opinions of people who don’t really understand politics and who simplify every issue. I am NOT saying you do, but let’s be brutally honest, Essex man who voted Tory in the 80s was not going to win any IQ competitions. Same with UKIP: a very clever bunch of middle class people (for the most part) who know that the working classes fear anything that isn’t egg and chips, holidays in Benidorm where thank god there is a pub called the Queen Vic where they don’t serve foreign muck etc as nauseum. You and I may know that problems with Europe and being a member of the EU are not because they eat snails and talk funny but these people think this. Am I possibly teasing you a bit? Yes, I am if I am honest but it is the gut reaction I cannot bear them. They are trying, a bit like John Major did, to make people hanker for a Uk, or more correctly, an England that never existed. It didn’t. Honestly it didn’t. Sorry about that. I am a horrible vile unspeakable bourgeois snob and I should probably be shot but there you go. Sorry again.
Stephen. I don’t understand your viewpoint or your arguments. I expressed an opinion, and you don’t agree with it. That’s absolutely fine; nobody said we all have to think the same, but the basic tenet of your argument seems to be “everybody but me is wrong, because they’re all stupid or low-life proles” I won’t try to justify my point with my own education, position or so-called social status, but I think to blanket-paint every potential UKIP supporter in this way doesn’t actually support your intelligent debate hypothesis at all well. I’m not even so sure this is a working class debate; many people from all walks of life are very concerned about the seemingly awful decisions that are being made in Westminster that impact us all, and your appraisal is really quite patronising. I am enormously concerned at what is happening, in the UK, and I don’t fit any of your stereotypes at all (nor do I consider that I fail to understand politics very well, or fail your criteria for what you consider socially acceptable…assuming you are the arbiter of style and taste) By all means have your own views, and stick with them, that is what political debate in a democracy is all about, but if your best arguments are insults -and they certainly seem to be- you won’t win many people over to your cause.
You say “public opinion”. You mean YOUR opinions. Don’t confuse the two. Plenty of people, me included, can see past the blinkered ‘pepperpot’ opinions that you spout, so please don’t try and turn it into a ‘nasty politicians vs sensible electorate’ scenario. It is very noticeable that when one engages intelligent educated people in debate; particularly if they have left where they were born for more than 5 minutes, one finds very few UKIP supporters. There must be a reason for that, surely?
I’m really torn over UKIP. They certainly stand for a lot of what I believe in, and I am utterly disillusioned over what the mainstream parties have done to us, but it’s clear that without massive change (which seems unlikely) they won’t secure more than a few seats. I can imagine I may vote UKIP if only to send the message to LibLabCon that they need to radically alter their perspectives if they are to even remotely represent public opinion. I also worry that a UKIP vote may in some way help Labour, who surely wrought more damage in their 13 years in power than can ever be repaired now. I think it’s not too strong a word to say that I absolutely hate what our politicians have done to the UK, from Parliament right down to the sanctimonious twaddle churned out by Cheshire East and their partners. Where is the party that will represent public opinion on Europe, Crime, Immigration and Welfare? I can see the Conservatives slowly but insufficiently turning under UKIP pressure, but Labour and the appalling LibDems seem intent not only to let the UK drown, but to push our collective heads even further under. Look back a few decades, dear politicians, you have absolutely nothing to be proud of, and don’t forget that even the “defectors” were an active part in the deceit and mismanagement that has occurred over the last few years. You told us for years that what you were doing was in our best interests, why suddenly change your principles now?