Nigel Farage popped up on the Daily Politics today to warn Douglas Carswell that critical comments about his leadership cannot continue. The Ukip leader said the Clacton MP’s views don’t have any particular significance, despite the fact he is the only Kipper who was elected in May’s general election:
‘Well he did but so what? He’s one person. So what? We cannot have one individual every single time there’s a Ukip conference and it finishes with a story of disunity and it’s all being caused by one person. And frankly, I think it’s going to have to end.’
Farage was quite shifty on what the ‘end’ might be, although he did point out ‘it will not be me who makes these decisions, it will be Douglas’ — so it doesn’t look as if he will push to deselect Carswell or remove the party whip. He also said the rest of the party remains ‘very united’ around his leadership and no one else is trying to challenge it:
‘I have never seen a party that is more solidly united around policy, direction and leadership than it is today and what we’ve had, ever since that general election, is one individual, mostly in private but today in public criticising the leadership.
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