Douglas Carswell

Douglas Carswell
Carswell in 2009
Member of Parliament
for Clacton
Harwich (2005–10)
In office
5 May 2005 – 3 May 2017
Preceded byIvan Henderson
Succeeded byGiles Watling
Personal details
Born
John Douglas Wilson Carswell

(1971-05-03) 3 May 1971 (age 53)
London, England
Political partyConservative (before 2014, 2017–present)
Other political
affiliations		UKIP (2014–2017)
Independent (2017)
SpouseClementine Bailey
Children1
Alma materUniversity of East Anglia
King's College London

John Douglas Wilson Carswell (born 3 May 1971) is a British former politician who served as a Member of Parliament from 2005 to 2017, co-founded Vote Leave and currently serves as president and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy.

As a member of the Conservative Party, Carswell was first elected as the MP for Harwich in 2005 and then for Clacton in 2010. In August 2014, he changed his political allegiance to the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and announced his resignation as an MP. He stood in the subsequent by-election and was returned under his new affiliation, becoming the first elected MP for UKIP.[1] He stated 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."[2]

In 2016, Carswell said that he had "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".[3] He left UKIP on 25 March 2017, to sit as an independent MP.[4][5] He did not stand at the 2017 general election.[6] In January 2021 he was appointed as president and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy.[7]

  1. ^ "UKIP gains first elected MP with Clacton win", BBC News. Accessed 10 October 2014.
  2. ^ "Tory MP Douglas Carswell defects to UKIP and forces by-election". BBC News. 28 August 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  3. ^ All Out War, Tim Shipman. William Collins, 2016 p. 40
  4. ^ "Douglas Carswell quitting UKIP". BBC News. 25 March 2017. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  5. ^ "Job done – thank UKIP!". talkcarswell.com. 25 March 2017. Archived from the original on 25 March 2017.
  6. ^ Elgot, Jessica; Booth, Robert; Walker, Peter (20 April 2017). "Former Ukip MP Douglas Carswell to step down in Clacton". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference MCPP2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).