Ukip’s only MP is set for a crunch meeting with his party chairman this afternoon, just hours after Nigel Farage called for him to be sacked.
The former Ukip leader believes Douglas Carswell should be kicked out of the party for consistently undermining him when he was in charge, and also for blocking attempts to secure the MEP a knighthood.
Other MEPs have also called on Carswell to go, leading current Ukip leader Paul Nuttall to insist party chairman Paul Oakden meets with the Clacton MP this afternoon to discuss increase in infighting.
Ukip donor Arron Banks is even threatening to stand against Carswell in Clacton at the next election.
Carswell, who defected from the Tories in 2014, has yet to fully commit to standing for Ukip in the next General Election, and at the weekend suggested the only reason he hadn’t rejoined the Conservatives was because voters in Clacton are sick of by-elections.
Speaking after a Fishing for Leave event in Westminster this morning, Farage said: “He’s been picking a fight with us ever since the General Election.
“He should have gone back in 2015, he sabotaged every attempt we made, not just as a party, but indeed our attempts in the referendum to put a good, clear strong message out there, and he himself admits in the published book the Brexit Club his job was to neutralise Ukip during the referendum campaign.
“I managed to live with it as leader of Ukip, I just ignored it, but we have got a new leader of Ukip who needs to be given a chance and he’s got somebody sitting for Ukip in the House of Commons contradicting in policy terms everything he does.”
Ukip is in an increasing state of turmoil after failing to win the Stoke Central by-election last Thursday.
The Farage wing of the party believes Ukip did not focus enough on immigration controls during the campaign, leading one Faragista to claim “wet Ukip” were to blame for the defeat.
Carswell has been critical of the tone Farage and his supporters adopt when discussing immigration, and speaking to The Huffington Post UK yesterday he argued the legacy of the “shock and awe” tactics used in the 2015 General Election still damaged the party.
“If a large number of people are willing believe the worst about you, you need to ask why that is,” he told HuffPost UK.
When asked on Radio 4’s Week in Westminster on Saturday whether he would rejoin the Tories, Carswell said: “If I was to rejoin I would feel honour-bound to call a by-election, and first of all my wife would kill me. but local people in Clacton are a little electioned out.
“We’ve had a referendum, a General Election, a by-election. I’m staying put.
“I need to make sure the Government actually delivers on Brexit and I’m not going to take my foot off the pedal until Article 50 has been triggered.”