UKIP have elected Paul Nuttall as the successor to Nigel Farage MEP, after a drawn-out leadership contest.
Paul Nuttall is the former deputy of the leader of the party, and managed to secure 62.6 percent of the 15,405 votes cast. His closest opponent, Suzanne Evans, won a mere 19.3 percent of the votes, just ahead of relative newcomer to the party John Rees-Evans, who won 18.1 percent.
Mr Nuttall will be tasked with taking the party forward now its primary goal, Brexit, has been achieved. In his acceptance speech, Mr Nuttall pledged to unite the increasingly divided party and warned persistent dissenters that “your time in Ukip is coming to an end”.
The newly elected leader also attempted to establish the role of the party as an effective opposition to the Conservatives, holding the party to account over the upcoming Brexit negotiations. Mr Nuttall vowed to “replace the Labour party and make Ukip the patriotic party of the UK.”
The Labour party has also been faced with internal division, following a tumultuous summer leadership contest in which Jeremy Corbyn was re-elected as leader.
The UK Independence Party somewhat overshadowed Labour with regards to controversy earlier in the year, after an alleged physical altercation between former leadership candidate Stephen Woolfe and Mike Hookem. This occurred within days of the announcement that Nigel Farage’s replacement, Diane James, had taken the decision to resign just 18 days after her ascension to party leader.
The populist anti-immigration party won an unprecedented amount of the vote (12.6 percent) in the 2015 election, challenging Labour, who have traditionally been the party of the working class. Whilst UKIP has increasingly revealed its ability to appeal to sectors of society who have felt disillusioned by the Labour party in its current form, UKIP has found it difficult to assert itself due to ongoing internal conflict and an perceived lack of purpose following the June referendum.