In an LBC interview, Ms James announced she was an “admirer” of Russian President Vladimir Putin, citing his leadership strength as a reason.
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“I can tell you he’s not coming back”, Mr Banks said in response to a question about whether Mr Farage would ever return as leader.
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.
But within an hour of her leadership victory she took the decision to wipe Neil Hamilton from Saturday’s agenda for the party’s annual conference, which is being held in Bournemouth.
Mr Hamilton, who only found out about the so-called purge after being told by reporters, said it was a “rather weird way” to unite a party. “At least the coffee would keep you awake”.
Ms James said: “I still haven’t quite come to grips with it”.
He said: “Diane is entitled as a new leader who had no input into who speaks at this conference to have the opportunity to put her stamp on that conference”.
He added: “Without a doubt we have had a very hard summer with the different sides in some cases slugging it out in the press and others slugging it out behind the scenes”.
He said the Clacton MP “really isn’t doing anything for us” and must now decide if he supports the party’s aims.
He said the party has been plagued by squabbling and division which has left it resembling “a jigsaw that has been emptied on to the floor”.
Ms James refused to take part in hustings with other candidates, drawing criticism from UKIP members.
According to the paper, the now former Ukip media operations head believes that Prime Minister Theresa May, who leads the Conservative party, is following the ideology of Ukip’s 2015 election manifesto.
“Actually on the Thursday evening before the conference it was warm, humid, the thunderstorm – the dramatic lightning show – hadn’t quite yet arrived and I was sitting out on the terrace overlooking what I think must be one of the most impressive beaches in the country”.
“Without us there would have been no referendum, without you and the people’s army there would have been no ground campaign”, he said, as the crowd of mostly older supporters waved Union Jack flags.
He said: “I’m not giving up on politics completely”.
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.
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MEP Ms James, the deputy chairman of UKIP, won 8,451 votes – nearly half of the total – to take the top job.
