The UK's Conservative Government Just Suffered An Embarrassing Defection To An Anti-Europe Fringe Party

Flickr user Steve Punter / Wikimedia, CCConservative MP Douglas Carswell

Conservative MP Douglas Carswell just announced that he is leaving the party to join the U.K. Independence Party (Ukip), temporarily giving the nationalist party one member of parliament and forcing a byelection. We saw the news first on The Huffington Post:

"It's not enough that I leave the Conservative Party and join Ukip," he said. "I will now resign from parliament and stand for Ukip in the by-election that must follow."

The news is an embarrassment to prime minister David Cameron, whose party is plit between those who favor staying in the European Community and those who want out, as Ukip followers do. It won't undo his government, however.

Carswell's Clacton seat is a safe Tory constituency. He had a majority of 12,068 at the last general election. That makes Carswell's choice an uphill battle. The Guardian reported:

Speaking at a Ukip press conference, in central London, flanked by leader Nigel Farage, Carswell said: "Things don't have to be this way. I will be asking voters in Essex to help me change them."

The BBC said:

The maverick Eurosceptic backbencher said he wants to "shake up" the cosy Westminster "clique".

The defection will also remind people of the delicious moment when one of his fellow Conservatives, Claire Perry, told him to "f--- off and join Ukip."

That, apparently, has now happened.