Ah, UKIP. Never far from the news - we’ve seen enough of Nigel Farage and his frog face to last us a lifetime - but today the right-wing party are in the news for a different reason, aside from, you know, certain members being caught using terms like ‘bongo-bongo land’ and others blaming UK floods on gay people.
UKIP are back in the news, high on Brexit, and also because they’ve got a new leader, and she’s a woman. In fact, she’s the first woman leader that UKIP has ever had.
Last night Diane James won the party’s race to become the leader after Nigel Farage stepped down in July stating that he wanted his ‘life back’. She’s also an MEP for South East England.
So who is the new leader of the controversial party?
Diane is 56 and was born in Bedford, attending Thames Valley University.
She was a Conservative supporter until 2007 until she swapped to UKIP, but lost her UKIP seat in the 2015 election.
She’s swept to victory as UKIP leader now, however, gaining 46.2 per cent of votes cast in the party’s election. Interestingly, the runner up to get the leadership was another woman called Lisa Duffy.
And in the the past she’s stated controversially that she’s a solid admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling him a ‘strong leader’. Hmm.
After last night’s election (seriously, we can’t take any more of that purple and yellow colour scheme today) Diane tweeted that it is 'an absolute honour' to be new leader of the party.
She’s promised to push PM Theresa May on Brexit and has said: ‘[The Tories] cannot be trusted with true Brexit’ and that she will not settle for ‘Brexit-lite’.
She also told the conference: 'Yes to a 100 per cent European Union exit. Can I be any clearer? Yes to a sovereign independent UK. Yes to a UK free to make trade deals with whoever and whenever we want and yes to an immigration policy that allows entry regardless of origin to those with the skills and the expertise and the social values that this country wants.’
With a woman PM in Number 10 in the form of Theresa May and the first ever female UKIP leader appointed, it’s surely an historic moment for women - but possibly not as we envisioned it.
And if you’ve not seen it yet on Twitter, there’s been a lot of comment on THIS photo of Nigel Farage leaning in for a congratulatory kiss with his successor.
Sorry if that put your off your breakfast.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.