Douglas Carswell breaks his silence in the Times. Despite expressing his admiration for the UKIP leader – “Knowing how difficult it is to lead a party makes me admire Nigel Farage all the more” – Carswell ultimately calls for him to go: “even leaders need to take a break. Nigel needs to take a break now”.

He criticises Farage’s comments on HIV:

“At times, Ukip has failed to strike the right tone. By all means we should highlight the problem of health tourism. But we need to admit that using the example of HIV patients to make the point was ill-advised. Ukip has been at its most persuasive when we have been most optimistic. Anger is never a great way to motivate people — at least not for very long.”

And suggests Farage is unhelpful to the Eurosceptic cause ahead of the referendum:

“All of us Ukip supporters should ask one question. Is what I’m doing at this moment making an “out” vote more likely? If it isn’t, stop it and do something else.”

Well Farage did tell him to put up or shut up…