Ukip’s sole MP Douglas Carswell has held secret talks about rejoining the Conservatives to fight the 2020 general election, it emerged last night, as his party considers expelling him in a row over a knighthood for Nigel Farage.

The Daily Telegraph understands that Mr Carswell, who defected from the Tories in 2014, spoke to Conservative MPs to sound out whether he would be welcomed back by his old party. The idea is said to have been given a positive reception by several Tory MPs.

Mr Carswell’s future is in doubt after Mr Farage and other senior Ukip figures called on him to quit over his alleged attempts to deny Mr Farage a knighthood, and faces a formal investigation into whether he did so that could end in his membership of the party being cancelled.