Richard Braine has been elected as the next leader of UKIP, the party has announced.

Mr Braine succeeds Gerard Batten, who had been in post since February 2018.

The new leader, who is the party’s west London chairman, took 53% of the vote.

His closest rival, Freddy Vachha, finished with 20% of the vote, whilst Ben Walker and Mike Hookem managed 14% and 13% of the vote respectively.

Only 5,539 votes were cast – around a quarter of the party’s membership.

Mr Braine, whose website describes him as a software developer and photographer, had been former leader Gerard Batten’s favoured candidate.

Mr Batten stood down following the European elections, after the party lost every single one of its seats.

He was blocked from re-standing to be leader by the national executive.

Speaking after the announcement, Mr Braine said: “Thank you very much to the wonderful UKIP members – the independent thinkers who have reasserted nationhood and changed the world.

“It’s a great honour for me to be leader of UKIP and I’m very proud of the party and what it stands for.

“I’m determined to get the message out from the party about our manifesto and our great policies and get people in this country to understand that UKIP is the ‘far-moderate’ voice of common sense in Britain.”

He added: “We’ve got a lot more to do, we’ve got a great future and we’re coming back – so I’m very excited and I’m looking forward to the leadership of this party, bringing the members together and delivering better results.”

Mr Braine is a supporter of controversial figures such as Tommy Robinson (appointed as an adviser by former leader Gerard Batten), Katie Hopkins and Milo Yiannopoulos, calling them “cutting edge free-speech advocates” in his campaign poster.

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