Britain's anti-immigration, anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) lost its only MP on Saturday when Douglas Carswell quit the party, days before Prime Minister Theresa May was to launch the formal Brexit process. Carswell defected from the ruling Conservative party in 2014 to become the only UKIP member of the 650-seat House of Commons, but he has long been at odds with the party's founder, Nigel Farage.
In a blog post, Carswell said UKIP had played a leading role in last year's referendum vote to leave the European Union, but it was "job done". "I will leave UKIP amicably, cheerfully and in the knowledge that we won," he wrote, adding that he would continue to serve as an independent lawmaker.
His announcement came just days before May plans on Wednesday to trigger Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty, starting a two-year countdown to Brexit. Farage last month asked Carswell to step down, accusing him of being soft on immigration - a key issue in the Brexit campaign. "Carswell has jumped before he was pushed," Farage said in a statement on Saturday.
"Whilst he did want to leave the EU, he was never UKIP and sought to undermine us. He should have gone some time ago." mUKIP leader Paul Nuttall said his departure "will make no difference to my ability or focus on delivering the reforms I promised" to move forward. UKIP has been plagued by infighting since the Brexit vote and has struggled to build out a platform beyond its core message of euroscepticism and opposition to mass immigration.
Last month it failed to win a by-election in Stoke, the city that recorded the highest vote for Brexit last year and which had been viewed as the party's best hope to win a second MP. Matthew Goodwin, an expert on the political right, said on Twitter: "Maybe Carswell senses the changing wind?" Carswell was first elected to parliament in 2005 as a Conservative, and his 2014 resignation sparked a by-election in which he was re-elected as a UKIP lawmaker for the southeastern English seat of Clacton.
"Like many of you, I switched to UKIP because I desperately wanted us to leave the EU," he wrote. "Now we can be certain that that is going to happen, I have decided that I will be leaving UKIP," he said, adding that "Brexit is in good hands". He said he was not rejoining the Tories, which meant there would be no need for a new election. "I will simply be the member of parliament for Clacton, sitting as an independent," he said.
Carswell paid tribute to UKIP, even offering some praise for Farage, who failed several times to win a seat in the House of Commons, though he is one of 20 UKIP members of the European Parliament. "Make no mistake; we would not be leaving the EU if it was not for UKIP, and for those remarkable people who founded, supported and sustained our party over that period," Carswell said.
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