The new leader must put it back together.
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UKIP have elected new leader Diane James to take their party forward as Nigel Farage’s replacement.
Five candidates ran for the party leadership, with James the bookmakers’ overwhelming favourite.
James promised to make UKIP push the government to achieve a “true, 100-percent European Union exit” in Brexit negotiations.
Since then, the right-wing party has lurched toward disaster, losing its leader and descending into feuding.
While tensions between prominent UKIP members such as Suzanne Evans, Douglas Carswell and Nigel Farage have been simmering for some time, the leadership campaign has further illustrated that the party is far from united. She added: “Get on with it – invoke Article 50”.
After the euphoria of victory, it will be down to the brass tacks of improving the party’s organisation and, critically, developing policies that signal that it is not a single-issue party.
“Diane has a lot of positives, in particular her ability to portray policies in a positive way which will appeal beyond UKIP’s core demographic”.
Ms James secured almost half the votes in the contest after going up against four other hopefuls.
“We’re going to confound our critics, we’re going to outwit our opponents, we’re going to build on our the electoral success we’ve achieved to date and do more and I’ve said we are the opposition party in waiting so watch out”. In the 2015 general election, Ukip was the third-ranking party in terms of votes but, with the first-past-the post system, it got only one MP elected.
Pressure from UKIP helped push then-Prime Minister David Cameron into holding a referendum on Britain’s European Union membership, which resulted in a victory for the “leave” campaign. He remains a hero among UKIP supporters and has been urged by some to continue as leader.
Diane James, an MEP, was announced as his replacement at the party’s annual conference in the seaside resort of Bournemouth where Farage used his farewell speech to hail the “fairytale” Brexit result.
But in a sign of the divisions within UKIP, outgoing deputy leader Paul Nuttall said he fears “for the very future of our party” unless the in-fighting that has racked the organisation is resolved.
Speaking about Russian aggression towards Ukraine on LBC radio in April past year, James said: “I admire him from the point of view that he is standing up for his country. I am not even Nigel lite”.
The political scientist John Denham has written about the rising power of English identity in British politics.
Former media chief Alex Philips and ex-party director Steve Stanbury have already defected to the Conservatives over the last few days. Other disillusioned UKIP members may follow.
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She apologised after warning of “crime associated with Romanians” while campaigning to become an MP, and raised eyebrows after praising Russian President Vladimir Putin.
