Image source, AFP

So what's been making the headlines today? Here's a recap of the stories that are being talked about. 

• MEP Diane James succeeds Nigel Farage as UKIP leader, winning the five-way contest for the party leadership with 8,451 votes. Her nearest rival, Lisa Duffy, received 4,591
• In her acceptance speech at the party's autumn conference, Ms James says UKIP aspires to be "an opposition in waiting" 

• Nigel Farage bows out as UKIP leader, saying he has put "all of me" into the party over the past two decades - but now wants "his life back"
• George Osborne says he will stay in the Commons to "fight for the things I care about" as he launches a think tank to promote his Northern Powerhouse plan

• He says the new agreement over the Hinkley nuclear plant is "pretty much" unchanged from a deal struck when he was chancellor. 
• German chancellor Angela Merkel says the European Union is in a "critical situation", as leaders meet in Slovakia to discuss ways to regain trust after the UK's vote to leave the bloc

BBC News Channel

Neil Hamilton, leader of UKIP in the Welsh Assembly, has been asked by BBC News why Diane James had his name removed from the party's agenda on Saturday.

The ex-Conservative was due to speak on the main stage at UKIP's conference in Bournemouth - but he was bumped off after Ms James was elected leader.

Mr Hamilton commented: "Nobody has officially told me about the change in the programme."

Asked what Ms James was bringing to the party that leads him to be optimistic about its future, Mr Hamilton said: "Search me - perhaps we'll find out in due course. I'm perplexed by it and I think our party members in Wales will be even more perplexed and disappointed, so we await developments."

Pat McFadden, Labour MP and supporter of the Open Britain campaign group pushing for a close relationship with the EU, said UKIP may have a new leader in Diane James, "but the same questions apply about the UK's future outside the EU".

He asked:

BBC News Channel

New UKIP leader Diane James predicts Theresa May will go for a snap general election next May.

She had thought an autumn election was a possibility, but she says she's pulled back from thinking that. But if a poll is called, Ms James says:

Image source, Getty Images

New UKIP leader Diane James has defended herself against questions that people do not know who she is, by saying: "How many people can name the Liberal Democrat leader? Very few."

In her first press conference since winning the leadership ballot, Ms James was asked how she could follow the success of her predecessor, Nigel Farage, who is one of the UK's best known politicians.

She believes her profile "will go higher" after her first 100 days as leader and when she's ensured her party is a "confident winning machine", adding: "My awareness level is probably higher than some of the heads of Europe."

BBC News Channel

Diane James, taking questions about her leadership of UKIP, warned members who want to "continue being a distraction" to seek a new party affiliation.

"I want people contributing positively not negatively," she said, adding that "everybody is aware there are certain individuals who have fallen out with Nigel in the past".

Asked if UKIP will stand in the Batley and Spen by-election, triggered by the death of Labour MP Jo Cox, Ms James said it depended on the position of the Conservatives or Liberal Democrats, who have said they will not be fielding a candidate.

If those parties change their decision, she said, "then that completely changes the scenario".

BBC News Channel

Owen Bennett, author of Following Farage: On the Trail of the People's Army, says Diane James' address was "more the speech of a chairman than a leader".

Describing her stance as "steady as she goes", he said it would be interesting to see if she has the same ability to connect with people as her predecessor Nigel Farage.

Mr Bennett said Ms James had the nickname "Queen of the South" during the leadership contest - and while Mr Farage was "a south east, private school educated former city trader" he seemed to be able to talk to northern class working people well.

Mr Bennett says all depends on the team Ms James builds around her, but he wouldn't be surprised if she carries out "a root and branch review of the way the party is run".

Nigel Farage gave his final speech as leader, an hour ahead of the announcement of the leadership ballot that saw Diane James take over from him. Here are both of their speeches, in full, to the party conference in Bournemouth

Image source, AFP

The Daily Telegraph, external reports that outgoing UKIP leader Nigel Farage has been widely mocked on social media for the "awkward" embrace he bestowed on new leader Diane James at the party's annual conference in Bournemouth. 

In the picture, the MEP can be seen grimacing as she is held in a tight embrace.

The photograph quickly swamped Twitter as people joked it was reminiscent of the notorious John Travolta and Scarlett Johansson photograph, in which he grabbed the seemingly unimpressed star., external

Diane James was on stage at the party conference, having just been elected UKIP's first female leader.

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Alexandra Phillips, a former senior UKIP aide who has defected to the Conservatives, has condemned the "bickering" she saw while working for Nigel Farage - and tells talkRADIO: "You couldn't run a corner shop" that way.

Ms Phillips was UKIP's head of media for two years, and her move to the Conservative Party came on the day Diane James was elected UKIP leader, succeeding Mr Farage.

Read more, external

Ellie Price
Daily and Sunday Politics reporter

Alex Forsyth
Political correspondent

Image source, 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 saw its first MP Douglas Carswell elected at a by-election and re-elected 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. Read more

BBC News Channel

UKIP MEP David Coburn accused Prime Minister Theresa May of stealing his party's policies.

Claiming UKIP is "the party of the little guy and the little girl" and of people who felt ignored, he said Diane James would make the party "more efficient, more effective".

"We're going to try to give people a proper opposition and in the future a proper government," adding that UKIP is "supplying all the ideas".

Image source, PA

Diane James is the new leader of the UK Independence Party, after winning the contest to succeed Nigel Farage.

Once a Conservative supporter, she distanced herself from the party and became an independent councillor in 2007, before joining UKIP.

One of UKIP's most fluent and reliable media performers, Ms James, 56, has held several high profile roles in the party, including the deputy chairmanship and spokeswoman for justice and home affairs.

She rose to prominence in the party after almost winning the 2013 Eastleigh by-election from the Lib Dems, coming within fewer than 2,000 votes of victory. She impressed journalists with her performance and relegated the Conservatives in to third place.

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Diane James secured nearly half the votes in the contest for UKIP leader after going up against four other hopefuls. Taking to the stage at the party's annual conference in Bournemouth, she said: 

The new leader said the party had "moved mountains on the political landscape" and was the "change movement of the United Kingdom".