Douglas Carswell: Darling of the Tories, Labour and now Ukip

This is no ordinary defection. It would be easy for the Tories to brush off a member of the old guard as a swivel-eyed headbanger, but Douglas Carswell is not only a darling of the grassroots, he’s also extremely popular in the House. And not just amounst Tories. As Mr S reported last year from Carswell’s book launch, Tristram Hunt is a big fan:

‘In Douglas and his manifesto we have not as the whips office suggest a ranter, not a digger or a muggle-tonian but a true agitator with a modern Leveller tract, a 21st Century agreement of the people, and if the tools of the 1640s were the unlicensed presses of London, Douglas’ is the internet. I can think of no other politician who is more dedicated too, or has a better command of understanding how the internet is transforming our politics and our society.’

As Carswell said at his press conference: ‘If people attack me personally and with vitriol, all the more reason for me to be nice to them because they need it most’.