Neil Hamilton has been elected as the new leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP).
Mr Hamilton, who was a Conservative MP in the UK Parliament for Tatton between 1983 and 1997, was a Member of the Welsh Senedd for five years prior to losing his seat earlier this year.
Hamilton served as Deputy Chair of UKIP from 2014 to 2016, and has been the interim leader of the party since September last year.
Securing 78% of the vote in the leadership election, Mr Hamilton said he was “absolutely delighted to be elected leader of UKIP, the only British political party willing to say the politically unsayable.”
Seven people have been elected as UKIP leader since Nigel Farage stood down from the post for the last time in 2016. The most recent leader, Freddy Vacha, was elected leader in June 2020 but suspended by the party just three months later.
While UKIP gained significant ground post-2010, secured 12.6% of the vote share in the 2015 General Election and was successful in its campaigning for the UK to leave the EU, the party has since struggled. There have been questions over the future role of the party, especially since the launch of Reform UK (formerly the Brexit Party).
In 2019, UKIP won just 0.1% of the vote share in the UK’s General Election, and the party has no seats in the UK Parliament.
