Her elevation to the leadership means that UKIP join the Conservatives, Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru in having a female politician at the helm, while the Greens have a woman as job-sharing co-leader.
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Ex-UKIP chief Nigel Farage’s right-hand woman has defected to the Tories after Prime Minister Theresa May’s apparent commitment to deliver Brexit made her question the goal of UKIP.
The UK Independence Party picked a new leader on Friday to replace Nigel Farage, a key player in Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, with the incoming Diane James pledging to ensure Britain follows through with a full withdrawal from the bloc.
Diane James has been appointed the new leader of Ukip, taking over from Nigel Farage after he resigned in July.
In the aftermath of internal party fights she made a plea for unity, telling the conference hall to support her, work with her and “make Ukip the winning machine it will become”.
Farage – who has a fair claim to have influenced the course of British politics more than any other non-MP following his campaign’s victory in the June Brexit referendum – is now thought likely to look for a media career, although he remains an MEP until Britain leaves the EU.
“I’m optimistic that things will go well: I think that she has good traditional values and that’s the main reason I voted for her”, she said.
He said he would quit after failing to win his seat at the 2015 general election, but stayed on after the party rejected his resignation.
UKIP came third by share of the vote in the 2015 United Kingdom election, but under the first-past-the-post electoral system, which favours the two main parties, won only one of the 650 seats in parliament.
Holding up a copy of the European passport held by British people, Farage said: “The only time we’ll know Brexit means Brexit is when that has been put in the bin and we get a British passport”.
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.
Smiling broadly, he went on: “So I am going to be engaged in political life without leading a political party, and it is going to leave me freer, it’s going to leave me less constrained”.
Lisa Duffy, Bill Etheridge, Elizabeth Jones and Phillip Broughton are all also hoping to take the leadership.
The government’s new slant under May has “restricted political space for the populist right”, he added.
His friend and Ukip donor Arron Banks had revealed the pair got naked and enjoyed a swim on the eve of the conference.
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A rift emerged between the two men when Mr Hamilton was chosen by a majority of UKIP’s seven AMs to lead them in the Senedd following the election in May.
