James has been a member of the European Parliament since 2014, representing the constituency of South-east England, and is the UKIP spokeswoman for justice and home affairs.
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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.
Speaking at Ukips annual conference in Bournemouth, Farage described Britain voting to leave the European Union – which he said was the culmination of his lifes work – felt like a fairy-tale that had come true.
She accused the Conservative Party of stealing many of UKIP’s policies and branded the Prime Minister “Magpie May”.
Farage was one of the most prominent campaigners for Britain to leave the European Union ahead of a referendum on June 23 which delivered a shock result in favour of the so-called Brexit. She added: “Get on with it – invoke Article 50”.
She defeated four other candidates in a ballot of party members.
Ms James took the party’s top job with 8,451 of the 17,970 votes cast in the contest.
The leadership race has been acrimonious from the start.
He said the party has been plagued by squabbling and division which has left it resembling “a jigsaw that has been emptied on to the floor”.
Nevertheless, it remains a potent force in British politics. ITV News reported that his slot had been given to his arch-rival Nathan Gill, the party’s overall leader in Wales.
James quickly emerged as the bookmakers’ favourites after Woolfe’s exclusion. She refused to attend the official leadership hustings and didn’t present a programme for her leadership.
She will inherit a party which won 4 million votes in the 2015 national election but is now riven with factional disputes and struggling to redefine itself after achieving its main goal of triggering Britain’s exit from the EU.
This leadership campaign has perfectly illustrated the obstacles UKIP will face over the next few months.
While lacking Farage’s charisma, James is a proverbial flame-thrower, once apologizing after warning of “crime associated with Romanians”, during a campaign to become a MP.
Banks could deal UKIP a potentially fatal blow if he decides to withdraw his funding – another headache for new leader James.
A second problem is the lack of long-term objectives.
“UKIP’s future is unclear”, said Matthew Goodwin, an expert on the party at the University of Nottingham. Even though the party successfully broadened its horizons in recent years, many believe it peaked at Brexit.
If Mrs May failed to deliver a “hard Brexit” he said “there will be a very large number of Conservatives that will say there is only party that we can support”.
Phillips comments came ahead of Friday’s announcement of UKIP’s new leader. UKIP has not been a happy camp for over a year, and the animosity has spilt over into the media.
Finally, the party is becoming increasingly divided.
He said: “The designation process between Leave.EU and VoteLeave created a cancer in the heart of the party and led to its leading lights using Ukip as a football – so much so that the party resembles a jigsaw that has been emptied onto the floor”.
Despite these obstacles, it is far too early to tell whether UKIP’s fox is shot.
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Douglas Carswell has been given just five minutes to address party activists at their autumn gathering despite being the only member of Ukip to have been directly elected to Parliament.
