How many of their AM think that its time to leave UKip?

The news that Ukip’s only member of parliament, Douglas Carswell, has quit the party to become an independent MP, prompting a backlash from within Ukip and among its supporters. has led to some commentators to question whether the media should give so much air-time to the party.

Prehaps so but before we gloat we must take into account that Ukip now has no MPs in the house of commons  despite gaining 12.6 vote.

I loathe Ukip but that is clearly unfair that a party had had roughly a third of the vote of the Conservatives  elected only one MP to the latter's 331

I accept that if the Greens for instance had the same access to the news media  as UKip to the extent that I wondered if Nigel Farage had been given his own Parking Space by the BBC,

Carswell, who defected from the Conservative party to Ukip in August 2014, said he was leaving “amicably, cheerfully and in the knowledge that we won”.

He said he would not be standing down before the next general election, and claimed there was no need for a byelection because he was not joining another party. Ukip, he added, had achieved its founding aims with the vote to leave the EU. “After 24 years, we have done it. Brexit is in good hands,” he said.

Shortly after the announcement on Saturday, the Ukip leader, Paul Nuttall, said the party had not “benefited financially or organisationally from having Douglas in Westminster”.

He said

“With this in mind, his departure will make no difference to my ability or focus on delivering the reforms I promised when elected as leader.” 

Not entirely As Peter Black points out this put the other ex Conservative MP who defected to UKIP seems to work for Mr Carswell.

I am particularly intrigued as to where this leaves UKIP AM, Mark Reckless. As the Welsh Assembly's website points out, Reckless declares amongst his interests that he is a 'Part-time Director (not a company director) and Company Secretary, UKIP Parliamentary Resource Unit Limited (SO 4.3 - Band 2 - Between 5 hours and 20 hours per week). Company in receipt of House of Commons 'short money'.

Prehaps Mr Reckless own time with Ukip is limited however

A committee looking at the future of the Welsh farming sector, chaired ny  him, has said  rural communities must not lose out as a result of Brexit and access to the European single market is a "critical priority" once Britain leaves.

The recommendations of the National Assembly for Wales committee report has been 'broadly welcomed' by farmers.

Mark Reckless,as chairman of the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee, has been looking at the potential impact leaving the EU will have on the sector.

In the report Mr Reckless says: 

“For over four decades, the way in which agricultural produce is farmed, sold and financially supported has been decided primarily at a European level.“Following the referendum outcome last June, Wales now has a chance to mould those policies closer to home.“But we can only take advantage of this opportunity to reinvigorate our rural communities by ensuring that we, in Wales, do not lose out as a result of the vote to leave.“In the shorter term we have heard clear evidence that access to the Single Market place, continuation of financial support and assurances over migrant labour are critical priorities.”

 Without his seeming lucrative arrangement with Douglass Carswell, and a seeming retaliation that Mrs May's Hard Brexit  is going to be disastrous for rural communities is Mr Rekless really going to carry on line exile in Wales as an AM for a party he might find himself In agreement with  the MP he works for?

In a post on his website and an email to his constituents, Carswell said: 

“It has been an extraordinary achievement. Ukip, my party, which was founded in 1993 in order to get Britain out of the European Union, has now achieved what we were established to do.
“Like many of you, I switched to Ukip because I desperately wanted us to leave the EU. Now we can be certain that that is going to happen, I have decided that I will be leaving Ukip.

So where foes this leave the rest of Ukip elected representatives? 

There are now only seven UKip members in UK legislatures,  all in Wales and where we have already seen Gill subsequently leave  the UKIP group in the assembly to sit as an independent, citing much infighting and distractions. though bizarrely  He remains a member of the party.

Just how many UKIP AMs are still in the Assembly group at the next election is a big question.