The UK Independence Party (Ukip) has elected Diane James as its new leader on Friday (16 September).
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“UKIP’s future is unclear”, said Matthew Goodwin, an expert on the party at the University of Nottingham.
James, 56, who has served as deputy chairman and was the favorite to win, welcomed her appointment, telling party members at their annual conference: “We are the political change movement of the United Kingdom”.
Clearly less than impressed with the image being conjured, Eagle said: “I think there should be a law against it”.
This made Ms James an unlikely favourite, winning the support of Mr Farage and the party’s moneybags, Arron Banks, who helped fund her campaign.
Following the election of Mrs James as party leader, Mr Hamilton said he hoped her leadership would mean an end to factionalism within the party.
Splits between various factions, and over the Brexit referendum, had “created a cancer in the heart of the party and led to its leading lights using Ukip as a football”, Nuttall said. “But I will also, for the first time in years, have a bit of a life as well”, he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
A member of the European parliament with little public profile, James has the hard task of succeeding one of the country’s most recognisable politicians after winning a ballot of UKIP’s 40,000 members with 47 per cent of the vote.
Ms James had been urged to find a way to reunite the party after months of spats and infighting among its most high-profile members.
Ms James said it was her “absolute pleasure” to welcome the Clacton MP on to the platform in Bournemouth and praised his “courageous” decision to defect from the Conservatives.
Led by the charismatic Mr Farage, who successfully tapped into a powerful anti-establishment mood among voters, the party won almost four million votes at a general election in 2015 and played a key role in persuading Britons to vote to leave the EU.
Speaking directly to prime minister Theresa May in her speech, she said: “If you’re watching TV this afternoon, you’ll be watching the opposition party in waiting”.
The leader of Ukip’s Welsh Assembly group, who Mr Farage has been fiercely critical of, was replaced by a 10-minute coffee break and a five-minute speech by Nathan Gill, the man he ousted.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There are far too many schisms and divisions which I think at this point are irreparable”.
Just hours after she took over from Nigel Farage, she has showed she plans to show her strength.
The new party leader finished the race with 8,451 out of 17,970 votes cast in total – 47.6-per-cent.
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Running against James for the leadership spot were Lisa Duffy, Bill Etheridge, Elizabeth Jones and Phillip Broughton.
