Douglas Carswell

John Douglas Wilson Carswell (born 3 May 1971) is a British politician who in 2014 became the first elected Member of Parliament for the UK Independence Party (UKIP), representing Clacton.
Formerly a member of the Conservative Party, Carswell was elected as the MP for Harwich in 2005 and Clacton in 2010. In August 2014, he changed his political allegiance to UKIP and announced his resignation as an MP, thereby necessitating a by-election in which he stood and was returned as a UKIP MP. He explained that he was joining UKIP out of a desire to see "fundamental change in British politics" and because he believed "many of those at the top of the Conservative Party are simply not on our side. They aren't serious about the change that Britain so desperately needs." In 2016 Carswell admitted that he “jumped ship with the express goal of changing the image of UKIP and ensuring that it was an asset rather than a liability in the referendum campaign…to decontaminate the brand”.

Carswell is the son of two doctors of medicine. He lived in Uganda until his late teens. His father, Wilson Carswell, a respected Scottish doctor and Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, diagnosed the first confirmed Ugandan cases of HIV/AIDS in the early 1980s, and was one of a number of people engaged in drawing the world's attention to the unfolding pandemic. His father's experiences in Uganda were the inspiration for the character Dr Nicholas Garrigan in Giles Foden's novel The Last King of Scotland. Carswell later attributed his libertarianism to his experiences of the "arbitrary rule" of Idi Amin.

Carswell was educated at two independent boarding schools for boys: St Andrews School in Turi in Kenya in East Africa, and Charterhouse School in Godalming in Surrey in Southern England, followed by the University of East Anglia (UEA), where he was taught by Edward Acton, and graduated with an upper second-class honours bachelor's degree in history in 1993. He then attended King's College London, graduating with a master's degree in British imperial history.

Carswell worked as Corporate Development Manager for Television Broadcasting in Italy from 1997 until 1999, and later for Invesco.

At the 2001 general election, Carswell contested Sedgefield, the constituency of Prime Minister Tony Blair, as the Conservative candidate. Blair's majority fell by 7,500 votes with Carswell effecting a swing of 4.7 percent to the Conservatives compared to a national swing of 1.8 percent. In the months before the 2005 general election, Carswell worked in the Conservative Party's Policy Unit, then run by David Cameron.

Member of Parliament

First parliamentary term

Carswell was elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election for the constituency of Harwich, defeating Ivan Henderson, the sitting Labour Member of Parliament (MP), by 920 votes. Carswell made his maiden speech on 28 June 2005 in the debate on the Identity Cards Bill. He was a member of Conservative Friends of Israel. Carswell serves on the House of Commons' Education Select Committee and the Public Accounts Committee.

In 2008, Carswell took part in an Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme trip to Afghanistan, after which he called for more resources to be allocated to British troops serving there .

In April 2008, Carswell was reported to be launching plans for Speaker Michael Martin to be removed after the 2010 general election, saying that the Speaker had 'demonstrated that he is not the man to oversee the vital job of restoring faith in Westminster politics'. Martin later became the first Speaker in 314 years to resign after cross-party criticism of his handling of the MPs' expenses scandal. In December 2009, Carswell tabled a Bill in the House of Commons calling for a public referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union. The Daily Telegraph nominated him a Briton of the Year 2009, and Spectator readers voted him their choice as Parliamentarian of the Year in the same year. In February 2010, he asked Gus O'Donnell to suspend Cabinet meetings held outside London, when it was found that the government was using them to host Labour Party events in marginal seats.

Second parliamentary term

In the newly created constituency of Clacton at the 2010 general election, Carswell increased his majority over Henderson to 12,068 votes. The UK Independence Party decided not to field a candidate against Carswell in the 2010 general election. Instead, UKIP actively campaigned in support of his re-election in view of his staunch anti-EU views.

In the first week of the new parliamentary session of the Conservative-led Government, Carswell revealed he intended to force a referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon, over the need to resolve an oversight of apportionment in the European Parliament by re-ratifying the Treaty.

On 28 August 2014, Carswell defected from the Conservatives to the UK Independence Party. Although not required to do so, he resigned his seat as an MP, thus triggering a by-election. Less than a month before switching parties, Carswell had approved a letter from Conservative supporter Giles Watling to a local newspaper describing UKIP as a "one policy party" and saying "a vote for Ukip will be a vote for Labour". He later said he had been "decidedly cool towards the sentiments of the letter."

Clacton by-election

Following Carswell's resignation Roger Lord, UKIP's nominated candidate for the 2015 general election, declared that he still wanted to stand, although the UKIP National Executive Committee voted to select Carswell. Two early opinion polls showed Carswell with a substantial lead. At the by-election on 9 October 2014, Carswell was successful, with a substantial majority of 12,404 votes over his nearest rival. In the 2015 general election, however, this figure was reduced to 3,437 votes.

Political positions

Dod's political biography of Carswell describes him as being "tall and Eurosceptic ... one of his party's radical thinkers". The Economist has dubbed him "the thinking man's [U]kipper".

Carswell has become known at Westminster for being an outspoken advocate of political reform.

On health, Carswell advocates a system of personal health accounts, viewing the current National Health Service as "the national sickness service". The health account policy is based on a proposal by Daniel Hannan as an alternative to the NHS in which individuals have personal health accounts, and use these to purchase treatment from public or private sources.

On immigration, Carswell appears to favour moderate levels of immigration based on skill and work-capacity. Shortly after joining UKIP, Carswell wrote on his blog: "On the subject of immigration, let me make it absolutely clear: I'm not against immigration. The one thing more ugly than nativism is angry nativism." He has also said: "We should welcome those that want to come here to contribute ... There's hardly a hospital, GP surgery or supermarket in the country that could run without that skill and drive."

Carswell is sceptical about anthropogenic global warming, believing current climate change to be driven by non-human factors. Carswell opposes the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, the War Crimes Act 1991, and the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997. After joining UKIP he vowed to challenge "out of date" ideas about women within the party which he described as "intolerable". He is opposed to laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, and originally voted against the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013, although he has since retracted some of his earlier opposition to same-sex marriage in general. Carswell supports the removal of legal protections that prevent companies from firing employees without following legal disciplinary procedures, and rules affording part-time workers the same rights as full-time employees.

His relationship with UKIP party leader, Nigel Farage, is full of "animosity" and "tension", and has called for Farage to step down as party leader on several occasions. Farage has also called Carswell "irrelevant", in response to them supporting different campaigns to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum. In response to Carswell calling for the party leader's resignation, Farage said that Carswell should "put up or shut up", further saying that "either he's going to have to accept that [UKIP is unified] or do something different". After Farage's resignation as UKIP leader following the EU referendum, Carswell tweeted a "sunshades smiley emoji", which some parts of the media described as showing the "uneasy relationship" between the two men, Carswell later said to the BBC that "I tweet smiley faces all the time, I'm very optimistic". He also said that while Farage had "played a role" in the referendum, the resignation was "a huge opportunity" for the party. This happened a week after Farage suggested that Carswell could be kicked out of the party, saying that "We find somebody inside our party who doesn't agree with anything the party stands for, it's a very odd state of affairs".

Carswell engaged in a Twitter argument with University of Sussex science policy professor Paul Nightingale, after Nightingale compared international trade to the effect that Jupiter and the Moon have on the tides, saying "Jupiter is big but the moon moves tides". Carswell claimed that Nightingale was wrong, incorrectly replying "Actually it’s the gravitational pull of the sun. The moon’s gravity does Spring/neap tides." In fact, the opposite is true.

Carswell is an advocate for observing a British Independence Day within the United Kingdom on the 23 June annually. In his article titled "Britain’s Coming Independence Day" for The New York Times, he stated that "America celebrates its independence on July 4. In years to come, Britons may celebrate ours on June 23." On 25 April 2016, he stated on his official website "let's make June 23rd a real independence day".

Parliamentary expenses scandal

After being elected in 2005, Carswell originally designated a £1 million flat in London as his second home, and claimed over £21,000 for food, rent and furniture. In 2007 he began renting a house in Thorpe-le-Soken, which he designated his second home, and again paid a deposit and for furniture, including a £655 love seat, from his expenses (see Flipping § Second home flipping). Between 2007 and 2009 he claimed £32,000 in expenses for the house. Carswell admitted to using expenses to buy "an armchair, sofa and some bedding, as well as a few other modest items of crockery and furniture", and commented "I believe this is entirely justified". In the 2012–13 financial year, he claimed £39,442.86, a larger figure than any other Essex MP. Carswell stated in July 2012 that his expenses had been greater than those of other MPs due to his need to rent accommodation close to Parliament.

Influence in the Conservative Party

Conservative Party commentator and Daily Telegraph columnist Charles Moore credits Carswell, together with MEP Daniel Hannan, as the architects behind the idea of a Great Repeal Bill, as well as the concept of a "Contract with Britain" offered during the election, the "recall" of MPs who have displeased their constituents, open primaries for the selection of parliamentary candidates, and plans for elected police commissioners." According to Moore's analysis not only is "The localism of the Carswell/Hannan "direct democracy" movement is now good Coalition orthodoxy", but Cameron's policy guru, Steve Hilton, "enthusiastically lifted several bits of The Plan", the best-selling moderniser book written by Carswell and co-author Daniel Hannan.

Even before the formation of the Coalition, the influence of Carswell's ideas was evident in speeches made by David Cameron – most notably a speech to the Open University made by David Cameron in Milton Keynes in May 2009.

Carswell and his wife Clementine have a daughter. Carswell's recreations include gardening, swimming, running, blogging, riding and making quince jelly. In 2012, his blog was getting 25,000 unique hits a month.

• Direct Democracy – Agenda for a New Model Party
• Direct Democracy; empowering people to make their lives better.
• Paying for Localism
• Chief author of The Localist Papers
• The Plan: Twelve Months to Renew Britain – co-written with Daniel Hannan.
• The End of Politics and the Birth of iDemocracy
• After Osbrown: Mending Monetary Policy