The former Ukip MP Douglas Carswell has said he will not seek re-election in Clacton, but will vote for the Conservative candidate.

Carswell, who defected from the Conservatives in 2014 and became Ukip’s first elected MP after winning a byelection, said he had been “proud and honoured” to represent the Essex constituency, but felt his political career was finished now the UK was leaving the EU.

“I have decided that I will not now be seeking re-election,” he wrote on his constituency blog. “I intend to vote Conservative ‪on 8 June and will be offering my full support to whoever the Clacton constituency Conservatives select as their candidate.”



Carswell left Ukip last month to sit as an independent after a high-profile split with senior party figures including the former leader Nigel Farage.

Ukip’s former main financial backer Arron Banks confirmed he would still stand for election in Clacton, where he had hoped to unseat Carswell. He told BBC Radio Essex he believed Carswell had stood down because “he was scared of losing”.

Banks has also recently fallen out with Ukip and he left the party in March, but he still wanted to take on Carswell. The insurance millionaire pledged to launch his campaign in the Essex coastal town on Thursday, whether he was adopted as Ukip’s candidate or not.

Following the news of Carswell’s departure Banks tweeted:

The Clacton swamp has been drained without a shot fired! Now for the Clacton plan.... — Arron Banks (@Arron_banks) April 20, 2017

Banks admitted on Wednesday that he “knows nothing at all” about Clacton and had sent an advance party to scout a campaign headquarters and venues for rallies.

The Ukip donor, who bankrolled the Leave.EU campaign, is now set to start campaigning on Monday.

The Ukip leader, Paul Nuttall, and Farage have both been mooted as possible candidates in Clacton if Banks does not stand for the party. But a senior Ukip source said no decisions had been made on who would stand where. “The main decisions on candidates and the manifesto are still to be finalised,” they said. “The election was something of a surprise, so we’ve not got everything prepared.”

Announcing his decision to depart, Carswell wrote that he had spent 12 years having “great fun working with, and getting to know, many wonderful local people”.

He added: “Together, we ran all sorts of local campaigns, from safeguarding local services to getting a new seafront. Local has always come first.

“As I promised in my maiden speech, I have done everything possible to ensure we got, and won, a referendum to leave the European Union – even changing parties and triggering a byelection to help nudge things along. Last summer, we won that referendum. Britain is going to become a sovereign country again.”

Carswell, who was first elected to represent Clacton in 2005, said he felt he was leaving Westminster on a high. “It is sometimes said that all political careers end in failure,” he said. “It doesn’t feel like that to me today. I have stood for parliament five times, won four times, and helped win the referendum last June. Job done. I’m delighted.”

He gave no hint of his future plans, but said he would “look forward to being able to read newspapers without appearing in them”.