Analysis: New UKIP leader's tough challenge.
AFP
The last time UKIP delegates met in the brown brick conference centre
overlooking Bournemouth beach, the party was in a very different
place.
It was 2008, before its momentous first victory in the European polls,
before it won some four million votes and its first MP at last year's general
election.
Before Nigel Farage resigned then returned within a week and before the
referendum and the party's moment of glory - the UK's decision to vote to leave
the EU.
After such a run, UKIP could be riding high. Instead, it's
rudderless.
In winning the argument on EU membership, UKIP lost both its reason for
existing and the leader credited with putting it on the map. Diane James must
now establish both a new direction and identity - and that won't be
easy.
For many, Nigel Farage is UKIP.
Ask voters in Ramsgate, Grimsby or Skegness why they back the party and
his name often comes up.
His straight-talking, beer-swigging image reached parts of the electorate
other politicians couldn't, and in doing so he became a household name
synonymous with his party.
He'll be hard to replace. Diane James is a polished performer who
portrays herself as competent and credible, but she's yet to prove she has the
popular appeal of her predecessor.
Yet despite his undoubted charisma , Mr Farage is the first to admit he's
a divisive character - both outside of UKIP and within.
AFP
Popular with many party members, his autocratic leadership style has
alienated some in its upper echelons.
Even before this leadership contest, the party was beset by
rifts.
Factions that developed during the 2015 general election hardened,
popular leadership candidates were out of the running before getting
started.
Two senior members have defected to the Conservatives in recent
days.
Diane James will have to heal divisions that run deep. She will face
animosity and anger from some senior figures, and will have to assert her
authority while Nigel Farage inevitably remains on the field - a powerful voice
even from the sidelines despite his promise to advise, not interfere.
Target Labour seats
Beyond its internal politics UKIP has an electoral challenge. Four
million votes at the last election translated into just one Westminster seat;
the current first-past-the-post voting system doesn't favour the
party.
Diane James will have to not only maintain current support, but build on
it ahead of the 2020 election.
With Labour facing its own leadership crisis, UKIP could use this moment
to capitalise on the anti-establishment sentiment so apparent during the
referendum.
Many insiders see their natural target as seats where the party came
second to Labour in last year's general election, particularly in Wales and the
North of England.
But the new leader must first persuade voters that the party still has
appeal by proving her leadership credentials while developing policies that
speak to the disenfranchised, beyond the promise of UK independence from the
EU.
The pledge to ensure the government delivers on Brexit will only go so
far.
In the eight years since that last Bournemouth conference, UKIP has
achieved more than many members might have dreamed.
Then, some deemed it a protest movement, now it's a political party
credited with forcing the government to hold the referendum which led to
Brexit.
On those fronts, the mood among members is high. But despite such success
Diane James is facing an enormous challenge.
She must unite a fractured party, prove it's more than one policy or one
man, prove she can inspire the electorate like her predecessor did and prove
that with the EU referendum over there's still a point to UKIP's existence.
BBC.
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