A rival for the leadership, Philip Broughton, accused Ms James of “undemocratic” campaign tactics, but she defended her decision to shun hustings, saying she could answer more of activists’ questions at her own events.
Advertisement
The advice came from its North East MEP, Jonathan Arnott, who also stressed the need to unite the party which has been riven by divisions in recent years. “I think it’s extraordinary that the speaker of the Ukip group in the Assembly should be replaced as the speaker by someone who’s just resigned in the assembly”. Bookmakers were offering odds of up to 90% for the Bedford-born candidate, who had been endorsed by party donor and prominent Brexit campaigner Arron Banks.
“Is he going to go on sniping from the sidelines?”, he said. “But I will also, for the first time in years, have a bit of a life as well”.
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.
“The membership has spoken and it has made a clear choice”, he said. We must now all rally behind Diane’.
The Ukip deputy chair and home affairs spokeswoman was ranked favourite after the party’s migration spokesman, Steven Woolfe MEP, was blocked from the final ballot.
Mr Farage, who has clashed repeatedly with the party’s ruling National Executive Committee, said that Ukip needed to reform its party structures.
In sharp criticism she said the party had become more “aggressive and testosterone-fuelled” in the later stages of Mr Farage’s leadership and infighting had taken hold.
In a scathing series of interviews she complained there are “so many factions in Ukip it becomes a Venn diagram where your enemy’s enemy is your friend”.
Mr Carswell did not publicly back anyone in the leadership battle but was thought to have supported the second place candidate Lisa Duffy.
The anti-immigration party won 12.6 percent of the vote in the 2015 general election, though it only has one MP to show for it under Britain’s first-past-the-post system.
Mr Hamilton found out about the changes from reporters at the conference.
A former business analyst with a long career the healthcare sector, Ms James has pledged to ensure the government delivers an exit from the European Union that meets the demands of UKIP voters: namely tighter immigration controls and more free trade.
But Hamilton has said he refuses to “go away” and said it seems a “rather freaky way to unite a party”.
“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”.
Advertisement
“Ukip does have to make some fundamental changes, some quite big surgery is needed”.
