Douglas Carswell

Early life and education

Carswell is the son of two physicians. 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, receiving a master's degree in British imperial history.

Life and career

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% to the Conservatives compared to a national swing of 1.8%. In the months before the 2005 general election, Carswell worked in the Conservative Party's Policy Unit, then run by David Cameron.

First parliamentary term (2005–10)

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 served 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 (2010–15)

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.

Third parliamentary term (2015–17)

In the 2015 UK general election, Carswell won the seat of Clacton with a majority of 3,437 – down from a majority of 12,404 in the 2014 by-election. Carswell won UKIP's only seat in the general election.

Carswell is a Eurosceptic, and supported Vote Leave - advocating a "leave" vote - during the EU referendum in June 2016.

In March 2017, Carswell quit UKIP to become an independent MP for Clacton, leaving UKIP with no MPs in parliament. On quitting the party he said, "Now we can be certain that that Brexit is going to happen, I have decided that I will be leaving Ukip."

On 20 April 2017, following the announcement on 18 April 2017 by Prime Minister Theresa May of a snap UK general election, Carswell confirmed he would not be standing as a candidate on 8 June 2017.

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 wishes to repeal the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, the War Crimes Act 1991. He also wishes to repeal the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997, saying that this legislation hasn't reduced gun crime. 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 then UKIP party leader Nigel Farage was full of "animosity" and "tension", and he 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.

Criticism

Carswell has come under criticism from many across the political spectrum. New Statesman commentator Stephen Bush stated that there's "little evidence" his personal vote in Clacton ever existed. Bush claims, using detailed electoral analysis, that "the evidence suggests that he has kept his seat thanks to the popularity of the party leaders he has consistently undermined and worked against". Bush has also stated that there "is no electoral majority to be found Britain for the libertarian brand of conservatism that Carswell espouses" and has repeatedly labelled him "scum" on the New Statesman podcast.

Personal life

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.

Publications