CLACTON MP Douglas Carswell has set the record straight after a turbulent week for Ukip.

The Eurosceptic party was thrown into turmoil last week after leader Nigel Farage withdrew his offer to quit after being asked to stay on by the party’s national executive committee.

He previously said he would resign his position if he failed to win the South Thanet seat at the election.

It left Mr Carswell as Ukip’s only MP, despite the party gaining four million votes across the country, and ended in a dispute between senior members and officials – and speculation Mr Carswell could leave the party or even challenge for the leadership.

The stand-off also saw Mr Carswell anger some in the party by insisting Ukip should not claim £650,000 a year of taxpayers’ money to fund up to 15 extra members of staff in his Parliamentary office.

Mr Carswell waded into the argument on Friday, calling on Mr Farage to “take a break” and criticised his leader’s comments on HIV during the election campaign as “ill-advised”.

But speaking to the Gazette, Mr Carswell said: “I have never aspired to lead Ukip and I never will.

“I have to be Clacton’s representative at the House of Commons, I have to be a constituency MP dealing with casework, I have to be the voice in Westminster for four million Ukip voters, as well as a husband and a father.

“People in Clacton voted Ukip and they got Ukip. I’m not planning on going anywhere.”

Read the full interview in the Clacton Gazette, out now.