Does Douglas Carswell agree with Nigel Farage’s controversial comments on treating foreigners with HIV? When I asked the Ukip leader, Farage responded ‘Yeah of course, he thinks we should have a national health service not an international health service.’ The question was put to Carswell directly on Question Time last night, when Piers Morgan took him to task if he was ‘ashamed’ at the comments. Carswell responded:
‘I think it’s entirely legitimate and right that we should expect that our National Health Service is a national health service and not an international health service. Now if someone was to fly into this country with no prior connection here at all and to fly in specifically to access treatment to which they weren’t entitled, I think most people would expect that is wrong.
When he was pushed on those exact remarks, Carswell was booed for not answering the question and pointed the finger in Farage’s direction.
‘You need to talk to Nigel about that —I think it’s entirely legitimate to make the point that our national health service is not an international health service but I think also important to point out that there has been enormous progress in fighting this terrible disease and I think that is something we should celebrate.’
Those eight words from Carswell present another opportunity to discuss a Ukip split. Many political commentators suspect that Carswell isn’t very happy in his new political home and has fundamental disagreements over policy and direction with Farage. His lack of public appearances lately add credence to this notion, as does the fact he wasn’t mentioned in the party’s manifesto until page 56.
It’s not an entirely fruitless exercise because there clearly are differences between Carswell and Farage. For one thing, Farage is a campaigner whereas Carswell is a policy thinker. The agreed line between them on the national, not international health service shows they broadly share the same ideas but the differences may lie in the details.
Farage excels in punchy, sometimes distasteful dog-whistle slogans while Carswell sticks to more considered conventional views. This may be one of the reasons we’ve seen less of him lately — every time he sticks his head above the parapet, it’s an opportunity for Carswell to be attacked as the only prominent Ukipper who isn’t slavishly obedient to Farage.
Yet even if they do disagree, so what? Carswell does not hold any official position in the party, although he has taken a key role behind the scenes as part of the party’s target seats operation. If Farage loses in South Thanet and Ukip has an undoubtedly bloody leadership contest, those differences will matter. But every Tory does not agree with every statement from David Cameron, nor does every Labour MP agree with Ed Miliband’s latest utterances. Either the media is being too harsh on Douglas Carswell for being independently minded, or he is avoiding airing his own beliefs for the sake of party unity.
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