UKIP prepared for early election, says Diane James

UKIP leader Diane James has predicted a general election in May 2017 and said the party needs to be "battle ready".

Ms James, who was confirmed as Nigel Farage's successor on 16 September, said UKIP should be prepared for "the earliest possible general election".

She said UKIP was "the opposition party in waiting" and Labour was in "disarray", including over Europe.

And Ms James declared there was "no threat" from UKIP to the rights of EU citizens in the UK to stay.

The new UKIP leader was speaking during a series of interviews to BBC political correspondents from across the UK.

"I'm not as well known as Nigel Farage," she confessed, but claimed: "Theresa May's not that well known across the country either."

Ms James praised her predecessor for "upsetting the political apple cart" of British politics but repeated an assertion she made in her acceptance speech at UKIP's annual conference that "I was not going to be Nigel-like and I was not going to be Nigel-lite".

Early election

Predicting that Theresa May's government would go to the polls as early as next year, Ms James said she wanted to broaden UKIP's policy appeal, now that a referendum to leave the EU had been won: "One of my personal aims in the first 100 days is to update our manifesto, because we are quite frankly looking at a green field out there."

She claimed that money saved from the UK's EU contributions could be invested in the UK economy post-Brexit. She also made clear her opposition to HS2, describing the high speed rail project as a "white elephant".

Ms James has said she does not want to be 'Nigel-like or Nigel-lite'

Ms James insisted it was UKIP policy to guarantee the rights of citizens from other EU member states resident in the UK when the country leaves the EU.

"Right the way through the referendum campaign, UKIP made the point we were not looking at mass expulsion from either the United Kingdom back to Europe or expecting our member state counterparts to reciprocate and expel people. That is not what grown-up countries do. So there's no risk, no threat at all from UKIP," Ms James said.

"If anything, there is a risk and a threat from this current government, that is yet to come off the fence and actually straightforwardly set out that individuals from European Union states that are here lawfully and legally are here to stay."

Thatcher fan

Having also attacked Labour for failing to provide effective opposition to the Conservative government, Ms James was asked whether an admirer of Margaret Thatcher from the Home Counties such as herself could appeal to traditional Labour voters in the north of England, many of whom voted for Brexit.

She dismissed such a characterisation as a "stereotype", adding that she intended to appoint two "chiefs of staff" to help the party win over Conservative supporters in the south and Labour supporters in the north.

The UKIP leader said she had voted Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Green "for my sins, in the past" but had only ever been a member of one party: UKIP. She did not mention ever having supported Labour.

And she backed action taken against UKIP councillor Sarah Larkins, who has been forced to resign as deputy mayor of Ramsgate for urging voters to support "anybody but a Muslim" in the London mayoral election earlier this year. The contest was won by Labour's Sadiq Khan, who is Muslim. Cllr Larkins has apologised for the comments.

Diane James insisted such views did not have a place in UKIP under her leadership, which she said would be "a lot more accepting of what we live in, in terms of society in this country".