Douglas Carswell has refused to rule out rejoining the Conservative party, a day after he announced that he had left Ukip.

The Clacton MP said he was not planning to rejoin the Tories, but left open the possibility of returning to the party before 2020, to allow him to contest his seat at the next election as an official Conservative candidate.

Carswell is currently sitting as an independent, but independents have a poor record of holding their seats at general elections.

Speaking on Sunday Politics, Carswell said he had received a huge number of emails from constituents since his announcement on Saturday and “all but a handful” of them were “overwhelmingly supportive”.

He said he felt “pretty comfortable” sitting as an independent, but when asked if he would fight as an independent at the next election, he replied: “Let’s wait and see.”

In a separate interview on ITV’s Peston on Sunday, Carswell said he wanted to support the government, but “as a critical friend”. Asked how he would respond if Clacton Conservatives asked him to represent them, he said he would tell them: “Right now, thanks but no thanks.”

Carswell also denied claims that he had left Ukip because he was worried about being thrown out of the party. He had been due to attend a meeting of Ukip’s national executive committee on Monday to discuss various allegations that he had sought to undermine the former leader Nigel Farage.



Asked if he jumped before he was pushed, Carswell replied: “Not at all. There were no formal disciplinary proceedings, but it’s probably the case that the NEC was going to meet to have a grumble, but they have been doing that about me pretty consistently for the past couple of years, so no change there.”

Farage told Sky that if Carswell were honourable, he would trigger a byelection, as he did when he left the Conservatives to join Ukip in 2014. Because Carswell supported the idea that 20% of constituents should be able to trigger a recall byelection by signing a petition, Farage said he was going to write to every voter in Clacton to see if 20% of them would back a byelection so Carswell’s word could be put to the test.

But Carswell said he did not see the need to resign and stand again this time because there was a “profound difference” between the current situation and what he did in 2014. “I’m not submitting myself to the authority, to the whip, of a new party,” he said.

He also mocked Farage’s threat to whip up support for a byelection. “There have been several byelections where Nigel has had the opportunity to contact the electorate and those didn’t always go according to plan,” Carswell said.

In his interview, Farage insisted that Ukip’s role in British politics was “not over by a long shot”, despite Brexit and Carswell resigning, leaving Ukip with no MPs.

“Winning a war is very, very important, but also you have to win the peace; the peace is far from won,” Farage said.



“Already I can see with this government concessions being made over fishing, the desire of the prime minister to stay part of the European arrest warrant. This is not over by a long shot.

“With no MPs we forced a referendum in this country. In many ways, outside parliament, Ukip’s achievement has been astonishing.”