Douglas Carswell

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Douglas Carswell, 2009

Douglas Carswell (born May 3, 1971 in London ) is a British politician . He was a member of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2014 and a member of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from August 2014 to March 2017 . He sits as an independent MP in the British House of Commons .

Life

Carswell is the son of two doctors and grew up in Uganda , where his parents worked. He attended St. Andrews School in Kenya , then the Charterhouse School and the University of East Anglia , where he studied history. In 1994 he obtained a Masters degree from King's College London . From 1997 to 1999 he worked for Italian television and from 1999 to 2005 for Invesco as assistant to the European CEO.

In 2001 he ran in Sedgefield as a candidate for the British Conservatives, but was defeated by then Prime Minister Tony Blair . In 2005 he narrowly won the Harwich constituency and moved into the House of Commons. In 2010 he was re-elected in the Clacton constituency. In August 2014 he left the Conservative Party and joined the UK Independence Party (UKIP). He gave back his mandate. In the by-election in October 2014, he stood for the seat of UKIP and was the first UKIP politician to win a seat in the House of Commons. Carswell was also successful for UKIP in the general election on May 7, 2015 and was the only UKIP candidate nationwide to win his constituency with 44% of the vote compared to his main rival Giles Watling from the Conservatives, who received almost 37%. While he was able to secure a majority of 12,404 in the by-election in 2014, his lead in absolute numbers was only 3,473 votes in 2015.

After the election, there was a dispute within UKIP over state party subsidies. Under the electoral code, UKIP was entitled to £ 650,000 in short money from public funds. This short money is a government party subsidy and the amount depends on the number of votes and parliamentary seats received (£ 16,956.86 per parliamentary seat and £ 33.86 for every 200 votes). Since UKIP was only able to bring Carswell as the only MP into the House of Commons, despite 3.9 million votes, this is entitled to all funds intended for UKIP. The UKIP party leadership approached Carswell with the plan that the money should be used to hire 15 new employees from UKIP's ranks for his parliamentary office. Carswell rejected this way of dealing with taxpayers' money as "inappropriate". He is "not a US Senator " and does not need 15 employees.

Regarding the disputes within UKIP over the role of the previous chairman Nigel Farage , Carswell said in an article in the Times on May 16, 2015 that he admired Farage, but that he now “ needs a break” ( “Nigel Farage needs to take a break now " ).

In an interview with the BBC on December 18, 2015, Carswell spoke out in favor of a change in leadership at UKIP ( “UKIP needs a 'fresh face' as leader” ). But he himself is not a candidate for this. After the statements he was publicly reprimanded by Nigel Farage ( "[He should] put up or shut up." ).

Carswell announced his exit from UKIP on March 25, 2017. He said that he had achieved his goal of Britain leaving the EU and that he would be an independent MP in the future. With this step, he said, no by-election is necessary. In the course of the early general election in June 2017 , Carswell said he did not want to run again, but instead support the Conservative Party.

Web links

Commons : Douglas Carswell  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Debrett's People of Today ( Memento from September 4, 2014 in the web archive archive.today )
  2. ↑ www.parliament.uk
  3. ^ Tory MP Douglas Carswell defects to UKIP and forces by election , BBC, August 28, 2014
  4. ↑ Radical visionary of the people , Neue Zürcher Zeitung. October 10, 2014. 
  5. ^ Clacton Parliamentary constituency. BBC News, May 9, 2015, accessed May 9, 2015 .
  6. ↑ a b Nadia Khomami, Ukip's only MP Douglas Carswell quits party , in: The Guardian , March 25, 2017, accessed March 25, 2017
  7. ^ Robin Brant: Douglas Carswell clashes with UKIP officials over money. May 13, 2015, accessed May 14, 2015 .
  8. ↑ UKIP's Nigel Farage should 'take a break' - Douglas Carswell. BBC News, May 15, 2015, accessed May 15, 2015 .
  9. ^ Simon Dedman: Douglas Carswell: UKIP needs a 'fresh face' as leader. BBC News, December 18, 2015, accessed December 18, 2015 .
  10. ↑ Election 2017: Which MPs are standing down and which hope to return? BBC News , April 21, 2017, accessed April 21, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Carswell, Douglas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES John Douglas Wilson Carswell (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British Conservative Party politician, Member of the House of Commons
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd May 1971
PLACE OF BIRTH London