Lord Pearson is new UKIP leader

I like Lord Pearson. He is a good and principled man but he does not have the charisma of Nigel Farage. The leadership race has also shown UKIP to be divided and lacking in talent. The party's large libertarian element may not share their new leader's reported determination to add "the battle against Islamic fundamentalism to the party’s main goal of withdrawing Britain from the European Union."

UKIP is not going to be the force it was.

Tim Montgomerie

3.30pm: A further thought... Lord Pearson's lack of democratic legitimacy hardly helps UKIP's central claim about people being able to vote out unelected politicians.

5.30pm WATCH: New UKIP leader, Lord Pearson, says his party's aim is a hung parliament and he will champion issues that mainstream parties think "too smelly too touch"