Former leader says party would be better off without its only MP, who has been called to meet chair amid knighthood row

Ukip has descended into an open battle over its future direction after the former leader, Nigel Farage, called the party’s sole MP, Douglas Carswell, a “Tory party posh boy” who was afraid of talking about immigration and should be expelled.

With tensions high between various factions in the party after the new leader, Paul Nuttall, failed to win last week’s Stoke-on-Trent Central byelection, Carswell was called to meet the Ukip chair, Paul Oakden, on Tuesday afternoon, a Ukip spokesman said.

It is likely that Carswell, a Conservative defector who represents Clacton, will be challenged about reports that he mocked Farage about the possibility of getting a knighthood in exchanges that were leaked to the Daily Telegraph.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Carswell campaigning in Stoke before the byelection. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

Speaking at an event on post-Brexit fisheries policy in Westminster, Farage said Carswell had “tried to undermine” him when he was leader, and was doing the same to Nuttall.

“Quite central to the Stoke byelection is what kind of policy are we fighting on,” Farage told reporters after the event.

“Quite why Douglas Carswell joined the party, when he disagrees with all their main policies, on all their key personnel, I don’t know. But I do think if the party was freed of him then Paul would be able to lead the party unencumbered.”

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Farage said Carswell had sought to stop Ukip talking about immigration during the EU referendum campaign.

“These sort of Tory party posh boys, who don’t like to discuss immigration – you might not get invited to the right dinner parties [if you do] – they wanted to fight the referendum without discussion of the issue,” Farage said.

“They were 180 degrees wrong on that. It’s because we did fight on that issue that we got a turnout of nearly 73%, and people voted who had never voted in their lives.

“His strategy was wrong then, and it’s wrong now. Ukip owns the immigration issue.”

Adding to the chaos, Arron Banks, the businessman who was Ukip’s biggest donor, tweeted to say he planned to stand against Carswell at the next election. “Ukip MP or not, I’ll stand against him in Clacton next election!” Banks said.

Arron Banks (@Arron_banks) He represents himself and no one else. A terrible individual that's done his best to destroy UKIP. https://t.co/xRs52BVtHe

Banks is not a Ukip member, having let his membership lapse recently. It is not known if he plans to rejoin.

Carswell has insisted he will remain in the party. On Tuesday he re-tweeted a message from the Tory MP Michael Fabricant saying Farage’s antics showed Ukip remained “a basket case” as a party.

The aftermath of the Stoke byelection, where Nuttall only narrowly beat the Tory candidate to finish second, has seen increased agitation over Ukip’s future direction, and whether it should seek to become more mainstream.

Some senior Ukip members say Nuttall’s failure in Stoke shows the party should return to its more hardline approach, and not try too much to appeal to former Labour voters. But other elements in the party argue it is being harmed by Farage’s closeness to Donald Trump, and needs to modernise.

While stressing his support for Nuttall, Farage said the Ukip leader should be careful of pushing the party towards the mainstream.

“If Ukip tries to become like the others, and tries to ape the others, it will be nothing,” he said. “I think he’s going down the right route. There are others around him holding him back.”

Farage has accused Carswell, with whom he has a long-running feud, of trying to block attempts to organise a peerage for him after leaked emails revealed Carswell had joked Farage should instead be given an OBE for “services to headline writers”.

The former Ukip leader Malcolm Pearson initially tried to organise a peerage for Farage, but then started lobbying for a knighthood when it became apparent Farage would have had to quit as an MEP in order to take up any seat in the Lords. After the bid was rejected Lord Pearson asked Carswell to approach the government chief whip, Gavin Williamson, to appeal against the decision.

In an email from 31 December leaked to the Daily Telegraph last year, Carswell wrote to the peer: “As promised, I did speak to the government chief whip. Perhaps we might try angling to get Nigel an OBE next time round? For services to headline writers? An MBE, maybe? Let’s discuss.”

Farage said the exchanges showed his Ukip colleague was “consumed with jealousy and a desire to hurt me”.

Douglas Carswell MP (@DouglasCarswell) Knight night. 😎

Carswell said the emails showed “quite clearly I tried my best to make sure he got an honour that reflects his contribution”.



He told the Press Association: “I’m delighted where I am. I’m trying to double the size of the Ukip parliamentary party at the moment. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to do that in Stoke. But if he wants to come and talk to the Ukip parliamentary party about any concerns he has, very happy to respond. It won’t take long, it’s just me.”

Writing in the Telegraph on Tuesday, Farage said Carswell had distanced himself from the leadership and the party’s policy on immigration as early as February 2015.

Farage said that after the general election, when he had failed to win the seat of Thanet South and briefly resigned as Ukip leader, Carswell had demanded repeated assurances that Farage would play no key role in the forthcoming EU referendum.

“From that moment on, Carswell has sought to split and divide Ukip in every way imaginable,” he said. “Since the general election he has brought nothing to the party at all other than constant division, at times I believe deliberately stirred up to cause maximum damage to the party.”