Douglas Carswell says voters should be able to sack their MPs between elections

Ukip MP Douglas Carswell has hinted that the party could call for electoral reform if it holds the balance of power in the next parliament.

The Tory defector said fundamental change was needed to reconnect politics with the public. He insisted voters should be able to sack their MPs between elections, and argued that Commons committees should have to sign off on ministerial appointments – as happens in the US.

Speaking on the second day of the Ukip conference in Margate, Carswell said the party was determined to “break up that cosy little clique called Westminster”.

Carswell said on Saturday: “They are going to have to make a lot more room for Ukip MPs in the Commons in just over eight weeks’ time. How does our Westminster system actually work? It’s a fix. A cartel.

Ukip's Dad’s Army marches on a ration of nostalgia and grievance Read more

“Too many MPs become MPs by working in the offices of MPs. We want to open things up. We want MPs that answer not to party whips, but to people. That is why we want to bring forward a proper recall bill to give voters the power to sack their MP. Unlike the coalition’s ‘sham’ recall legislation, the Ukip plan would trigger a local vote if 20% of the electorate signed a petition.”

Carswell also backed open primaries to improve the range of candidates in seats, and said cross-party Commons committees should have to approve ministerial and senior civil service appointments.

Stressing the problems of safe seats in the current first-past-the-post voting system, Carswell said change should not be ruled out because the alternative vote system had been rejected in a referendum.

He said: “If we are serious about choice and competition in politics, I think we need to think seriously about electoral reform. Just because Nick Clegg’s idea of AV was a bad idea, just because the Liberal Democrats are such a bad advertisement for reform, doesn’t mean we can’t do better.”

Meanwhile, Nigel Farage has revealed that he decided to address rumours he was seriously ill after Ukip donors rang him to express alarm.

The party leader, who denounced “vicious” speculation from political opponents in a speech to activists on Friday, told BBC Breakfast that he was “fit as a flea” and had not been in the public eye because he was out campaigning.

Asked directly on Saturday whether he was ill, Farage said: “No. The rumours were that I hadn’t been seen much in January and early February and the reason for that was that I was campaigning hard down here in Thanet.

“It has led to this wave of speculation that somehow there is something very seriously wrong with me and that was going around being gossipped about. Indeed some of our supporters and donors were ringing me saying, ‘what’s going on?’ So I decided that I would knock it on the head in public. I am fine, I am fit as a flea. Sixty-seven days to go to the election and I am looking forward to it.”

Farage said he was not going to give a forecast for the number of parliamentary seats Ukip would have after 7 May.

“I said we would win lots of seats, which means I think we are going to win more than a handful,” he said. “But I am not going to put a number on it – all the balls are in the air.”