Mr Farage said earlier he was “not going away” but would “support the new leader”.
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Speaking on Britain’s vote to quit Europe, James insisted it was the job of the party to make sure there was no “Brexit-lite”.
“Without us, there would have been no referendum, without you and the people’s army there would have been no ground campaign”, said Farage, who has campaigned for a British exit from the European Union since the early 1990s.
“I admire him from the point of view that he’s standing up for his country”, said James, who was her party’s justice and home affairs spokesman.
“I was anxious, losing somebody like Nigel Farage who has been a huge influence and a major game player [in] British politics – it was a worry that he was going”.
The 56-year-old, who still lives in Ewhurst, punched the air as she made her way to the stage, hugging Mr Farage and grinning broadly.
The UK’s tumultuous vote to leave the European Union saw another party leader resign on Monday (4 July), as UKIP’s leader Nigel Farage announced he was stepping down, declaring “my political ambition has been achieved”. My goodness you’ve handed over a mantle, but it’s one that I’m deeply honoured to take on from Nigel.
“I’ve done my bit”, Farage said Friday.
“What I will be doing is stepping into his leadership shoes, but I will be doing everything to achieve the political success that he’s handing over to me”.
The leadership race has been acrimonious from the start.
“Professionalism.will be top of my agenda”.
“The UK signature is not dry yet and we are still in the European Union”. “It’s been a great result and I think the future for UKIP is fantastic”, he said. “It is going to be because change is necessary and justified”.
She branded Theresa May, the Prime Minister, “Magpie May” and accused her of stealing “the best ideas” from Ukip.
But Farage also failed repeatedly to win election to Parliament, and has clashed with senior UKIP members, including its sole national lawmaker, Douglas Carswell, a defector from the Conservative Party.
And stressed that Britain does not want “Brexit-lite”, insisting the United Kingdom should leave the single market and put a stop to the free movement of people.
Most recently, US Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has warned that Russia is supporting her Republican rival, Donald Trump, by leaking hacked information that experts said they had linked to Russian state-sponsored actors. And I have just done it – and I am so pleased’.
After declaring to a rapturous crowd of Ukip supporters that we got our country back Farage said: Four years ago, I predicted well cause an quake in British politics.
Calling Ukip “the opposition party in waiting”, James urged the party to prepare for a general election, and praised the 2015 manifesto: “We’ve got to do that again”.
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The MEP for the South East, who was the bookies favourite, won with 8451 votes out of 17970 votes cast.
