THE first poll of the Clacton constituency, where a by-election is due, shows that ex-Tory MP Carswell, who is standing for UKIP, has 64% of the vote,
Carswell took the seat for the Tories in 2010 with 53% of the vote.
The same poll shows the Tories are trailing an enormous 44% behind on 20%, with Labour on 13%, and the LibDems on just 2%.
Survation’s poll for the Mail on Sunday newspaper is a catastrophe for the Tories, who had made clear they planned to fight the seat vigorously following Carswell’s resignation on Thursday.
While the Tory media are calling Carswell ‘a gutless coward’, 49% in this poll labelled him a ‘hero’ with only 17% declaring him a ‘traitor’.
Prominent eurosceptic John Baron said the Carswell defection was ‘unfortunate’ because it ‘could create the impression we are divided’.
He is among a number of Tory backbenchers identified as possible candidates for following Carswell in transferring their loyalties to UKIP.
The by-election is expected in October. A UKIP victory could see dozens of Tory MPs switching parties, and Cameron forced to resign.
Meanwhile the Tory leader is said to be set to announce today that British nationals who travel to Syria or Iraq will not be allowed to return to the UK, and will have to find some other country to take them.
However, he has already said that the terrorist threat posed by Islamist extremists is as much a concern for countries in mainland Europe as it is for the UK.
The UK’s terror threat level has been raised to ‘severe’ from ‘substantial’ in response to the deepening conflict in Iraq and Syria.
Cameron is due to make a House of Commons statement proposing a number of new powers.
Labour leader Ed Miliband has suggested the introduction of a ‘mandatory programme’ of deradicalisation, that is brainwashing for people ‘drawn into the fringes of extremism’.
Writing in the Independent, he also urged the government to bring back the control orders regime for terror suspects.
The Home Secretary already has the power, under the Royal Prerogative, to withhold a passport if it is in the public interest to stop somebody travelling.
Ex-Lib-Dem leader Paddy Ashdown has pointed out that the threat level from Northern Ireland has been been rated as ‘severe’ for the last four years without a whole range of new powers having to be brought in.
