British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservatives “cannot be trusted on Brexit”, Diane James, the newly elected leader of the eurosceptic UK Independence Party, said on Friday.
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She faces a tough task replacing Nigel Farage, the charismatic, ruddy-faced populist who helped propel UKIP from the political fringe to influential power broker.
“I don’t have the same national profile as Diane, she is in the media and on the television an terrible lot and a big part of any election is the recognition factor”.
She continued: “The absolute focus of our party promises is to make sure we are ready for the next general election”.
If you had to pick how Nigel Farage would have celebrated his final conference as the leader of Ukip, yes, you might have said a beer or two, but would you have thought of him skinny dipping?
“Ukip has not been a happy camp for over a year”, said Nuttall, who had been tipped to run for the leadership, but is instead stepping down from Ukip’s front rank.
The outgoing leader said he was “not going away” but ha d “done my bit” as he stepped back from frontline politics.
Speaking to a shrunken crowd of Ukip activists, Ms James insisted in a brief introduction: ‘I’m not interested in what has gone on before’.
Diane James has been appointed the new leader of Ukip, taking over from Nigel Farage after he resigned in July.
Mr Farage said the party had changed the course of British history and hailed the part it had played in delivering Brexit.
Hitting out at the “rigged” Westminster system that saw the SNP win 50 seats to Ukip’s one at last year’s general election despite attracting three times fewer votes than the anti-EU party, Mr Carswell promised to “provide an alternative voice” in the Commons.
Ms James took the party’s top job with 8,451 of the 17,970 votes cast in the contest.
Her language skills helped her land a job with a German pharmaceutical company, before she moved into the healthcare sector in the 1980s, studying the United States system.
“It was absolutely wonderful”, he said.
James went on to say that UKIP was the “opposition party in waiting” and would work to build on the electorate success.
“The threats to the referendum outcome are increasing by the day”, she told around 1,000 delegates at the party’s annual conference in the southern English coastal town of Bournemouth.
Her appointment comes as the party struggles to remain relevant in the wake of June’s vote for Brexit, with party sources confirming Ukip is fast losing support to the Conservatives.
The 56-year-old almost secured a seat in Parliament in 2013, and would have become UKIP’s first MP, but lost by fewer than 2,000 votes to the Liberal Democrats.
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Mrs James fought off competition from her nearest rival, Cambridgeshire District councillor, Lisa Duffy (4591 votes) as well as Bill Etheridge (2052 votes), Phillip Broughton (1545 votes) and Elizabeth Jones (1203 votes).
