'I stab people in the front not the back': Rebel MP Douglas Carswell defends joining UKIP amid revelations Nigel Farage is targeting 16 more Tories to switch sides



Douglas Carswell resigned from the Conservative Party and Parliament



He said David Cameron was 'not serious about changes country needed'

MP is among nine Tories 'wined and dined by UKIP donor Stuart Wheeler'

Mr Wheeler today revealed he could have 'easily' invited eight more MPs



Today, Mr Carswell hit the campaign trail with UKIP leader Nigel Farage



He defended his decision to defect from the Tories amid criticism from MPs







Tory defector Douglas Carswell today defended his decision to join UKIP - declaring: 'I stab people in the front, not the back'.



Mr Carswell returned to his Clacton constituency this morning with UKIP leader Nigel Farage amid speculation many more Conservative MPs have considered defecting.

Today, the multi-millionaire UKIP donor Stuart Wheeler confirmed that he had wined and dined around eight backbench Tory MPs in an attempt to encourage them to switch allegiance. He added that there were 'another eight I could have easily taken out'.



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UKIP candidate Douglas Carswell went on a walkabout with party leader Nigel Farage in his constuency of Clacton-on-Sea today

Mr Carswell gives a thumbs up to a passing motorist after returning to his constituency this morning

UKIP leader Nigel Farage (left), with Mr Carswell (right), during a press conference in central London where the Conservative MP defected to his party yesterday

The former party treasurer said he could not give names but boasted that there were a further eight he could have ‘easily’ invited out to lunch.



Mr Wheeler told Sky News he took the MPs to a restaurant called Serafino, which he said was no longer open.



He said: ‘I didn't say “Would you defect?”. I would say “Would you like to meet Nigel Farage?”. Some of them said yes and obviously Douglas Carswell was one of them.’

Mr Carswell - who officially stood down from Parliament today - said he was taking a risk by forcing a by-election but denied that he had been disloyal to Prime Minister David Cameron.

He added: ‘I like David Cameron, he's a nice guy, he's actually good fun.



‘I don't think I've ever stabbed anybody in the back, maybe I occasionally stab one or two people in the front but I've been frank and straight with people.



‘But I think he's not serious about change in Europe and I've put my political career on the line.’



The visit attracted a mixed response from passers-by with one woman shouting at Mr Carswell: ‘The traitor's blocking the street - stop blocking the street, traitor.’



But several cars honked their horns in a show of support and taxi drivers pulled over to praise Mr Carswell.



Mr Carswell was among nine Tories wined and dined by Mr Wheeler at a series of discreet lunches in Mayfair.

‘Stuart is quietly confident that more may follow Douglas,’ a source said, adding that the MPs were happy to talk to Mr Wheeler – a former Tory who defected to Ukip – ‘because they knew he understood their sense of divided loyalty’.

‘Stuart understood what they were going through because he had been on the same journey,’ the source said.

Mr Cameron was ambushed by the defection of Mr Carswell – a serial rebel – who quit the party with a parting blast that questioned the Prime Minister’s policy on Europe.

The MP announced he was joining Ukip and forcing a by-election in his Clacton constituency in Essex, which will be a nightmare for the Tories to defend despite their 12,000 majority in 2010.

It is understood that Mr Carswell was among nine Tories wined and dined by millionaire Ukip donor Stuart Wheeler at a series of discreet lunches in Mayfair



Mr Cameron was given no prior warning of the announcement and could only watch as Ukip leader Nigel Farage triumphantly paraded Mr Carswell live on TV.

The dramatic move has increased pressure on the Prime Minister to toughen his stance on immigration and Europe to stem the risk of further defections.



Tory whips were scrambled to ring round Eurosceptic MPs to shore up support. A senior Tory source insisted that Mr Carswell appeared to be a ‘lone wolf’ and played down the prospect of further departures.

And Mr Cameron angrily dismissed Mr Carswell’s move as ‘self-defeating’. ‘It is obviously deeply regrettable when these things happen and people behave in this way,’ he said. ‘But it is also, in my view, counter-productive.’

Mr Cameron was ambushed by the defection of Mr Carswell who quit the party with a parting blast that questioned the Prime Minister's policy on Europe

Mr Farage claimed he had been involved in talks with a number of Tory MPs over the past six months who ‘very strongly support everything Ukip is trying to do’.

He predicted that further defections will follow if Mr Carswell triumphs in the by-election, which is likely to be held on October 9 – the week after the Tory party conference.



‘The real answer to the question about how many others will join, will all depend on this by-election,’ he said. ‘This by-election is going to be a High Noon moment.’

However, Mr Carswell faced an immediate potential setback when Ukip’s existing candidate in Clacton refused to make way for him.

Roger Lord told Mr Carswell to ‘get in the queue’ but a Ukip spokesman said Mr Lord had been selected to fight next year’s general election, not the by-election.

Mr Carswell’s announcement came hours after official figures showed Mr Cameron has almost no chance of keeping his pledge to cut net immigration to below 100,000 a year – last year it rose nearly 40 per cent to 243,000, largely on the back of new arrivals from the EU.

Senior Tory Bernard Jenkin said: ‘The Prime Minister has got to spell out in far more detail and indeed in far more fundamental terms what he means... we don’t want to have our economy controlled by the European Union, we want to control the number of people coming in and out of our country. If we want all these things, we’re going to have to change our relationship fundamentally with the EU.’



Fellow Tory Zac Goldsmith described Mr Carswell’s departure as a ‘wake-up call’ while Tory veteran Brian Binley acknowledged that ‘one or two’ colleagues were tempted to join Ukip although he suggested that they would not.

Mr Carswell, an early supporter of Mr Cameron’s leadership bid, said the Prime Minister was ‘not serious about change’ when it came to the EU and was only interested in doing the minimum needed to win an election.

Speaking at a press conference in London alongside Mr Farage, he said: ‘The problem is that many of those at the top of the Conservative Party are simply not on our side. They aren’t serious about the change that Britain so desperately needs. Of course they talk the talk before elections.



They say what they feel they must say to get our support... but on so many issues – on modernising our politics, on the recall of MPs, on controlling our borders, on less government, on bank reform, on cutting public debt, on an EU referendum – they never actually make it happen.’



Mr Carswell addresses a press conference in London after being introduced by the UKIP leader Nigel Farage

News of the defection was relayed to Mr Cameron at Chequers. Speaking later in Scotland, where he was giving a speech, the Prime Minister said: ‘If you want a referendum on Britain’s future in the EU, whether we should stay or go, the only way to get that is to have a Conservative government after the next election. That is what, until very recently, Douglas Carswell himself was saying.’



Mr Carswell’s decision to trigger a by-election leaves the Conservatives facing a huge battle to prevent him becoming Ukip’s first elected MP. He has built a Tory majority of over 12,000 in what had been a Labour seat. Tory sources last night said the by-election would be held ‘sooner rather than later’ to prevent Ukip gaining momentum. Bookmakers immediately installed Mr Carswell as the odds-on favourite to hold the seat.

Mr Carswell’s sudden departure stunned Eurosceptic colleagues who believed he had settled his differences with the leadership – he publicly urged colleagues to stop rocking the boat six months ago, writing on Twitter: ‘Only the Conservatives will guarantee and deliver an in/out referendum. It will only happen if Cameron is Prime Minister.’



Former defence secretary Liam Fox said: ‘After the next general election, either Ed Miliband is going to be the Prime Minister, or David Cameron. If it’s not David Cameron there’s not going to be a referendum on Europe.