Carswell defection brings Tory pact with Ukip a step closer

David Cameron is determined not to have a pact – but will it prove the only way to stop Labour?

The Mole

The Daily Mail is reporting that Douglas Carswell took his decision to defect to Ukip after being entertained to dinner by Stuart Wheeler, the millionaire who is bankrolling Nigel Farage's party, and that eight other eurosceptic Tory MPs, similarly wined and dined by Wheeler, could be ready to defect too.

The Mole's inquiries suggest this is wrong - and that the agenda at these dinners was not defection but the idea of an electoral pact between the Conservatives and Ukip.

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is the pseudonym for a London-based political consultant who writes exclusively for The Week.co.uk.