Paul Nuttall says he wants Ukip to ‘replace Labour’ as the party of the working people as the MEP takes over as the new leader
He will take the reins from Nigel Farage today after he stepped in when Diane James quit after just 18 days in charge
Paul Nuttall has been elected as the new leader of Ukip with 62.6% of the vote, beating Suzanne Evans and John Rees-Evans to land the top job.
Nigel Farage will hand over the reigns to the former deputy leader and current Member of the European Parliament as the party tries to move on from months of chaotic infighting.
Mr Nuttall announced his deputy leader would be the Welsh Assembly Member Peter Whittle, and then used his acceptance speech to call for unity.
"Today is the day we start to put the Ukip jigsaw back together," the MEP said, calling for all factions of the party to unite. "The country needs a strong Ukip now than ever before".
He also expressed concern over the Government's Brexit policy, and said that Ukip would "hold their feet to the fire and make sure that Brexit really does mean Brexit."
He said Ukip would commit to an increase in defence spending and vowed to slash the foreign aid budget.
"We will talk about the issues that other parties are afraid to touch," he added, spending most of his speech attacking Labour.
"The open goal is there," he said. "I want to replace the Labour party and make Ukip the patriotic voice of working Britain."
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Speaking to the BBC after he stepped off stage, the new leader said that Ukip were aiming to win a number of seats "in the double figures" at the 2020 general election.
He also said the outspoken MP Douglas Carswell, who has got into heated disputes with other members of the party in the past, "wouldn't be a problem" for his leadership.
And as for Nigel Farage, the new leader wants him to stick around. "I would like to offer him the honorary presidency," Mr Nuttall said, insisting he would still be on the airwaves and writing in the media in future.
Mr Farage, the outgoing leader, echoed Mr Nuttall's speech, and said that Ukip were set to take more votes from Labour in future.
"Old Labour has absolutely nowhere else to go other than come to Ukip, and I recommend that the next leader spends a lot of his time... focusing on [it]," he said.
He also warned of more political shocks ahead.
"For those who think it's been an awful year - I am not one of them - there's a lot more to come," he said.
He was also worried that the referendum vote "could get significantly watered down" and that Ukip would continue to pressure the Government to get a good Brexit deal.
He insisted that the party still had sufficient funding, and the future was bright for the group.
"I am going to go on supporting Ukip. Am I going to be a backseat driver? No," he said.
The outgoing interim leader added that he would be visiting the US again, but "purely as a tourist".
Just a few weeks ago Mr Farage visited the US President-Elect Donald Trump and had a meeting with him at Trump Towers with a number of his advisers.
The government ruled out using him as a go-between and said he was an "irrelevance".