ONE of Hampshire's MEPs is now favourite for the UKIP leadership after fellow hopeful Steven Woolfe was excluded from the race to replace Nigel Farage, the party said.

The migration spokesman had been the favourite to take the top job but was 17 minutes late submitting his nomination papers, meaning Diane James is now considered favourite.

Ms James shot to prominence in 2013 when she came second to the Liberal Democrats in the Eastleigh by-election, pushing the Conservatives into third place.

Supporters claimed Mr Woolfe had been the victim of a coup led by UKIP's only MP, Douglas Carswell, and Neil Hamilton, group leader in the Welsh Assembly.

And the decision has led to another of the South East's MEPs, Hampshire county councillor Ray Finch, to resign from the party's National Executive Committee.

The NEC voted to block Mr Woolfe's candidacy by a ''clear majority'', a spokesman said.

MEPs Bill Etheridge, Diane James and Jonathan Arnott along with Elizabeth Jones, Councillor Lisa Duffy and Phillip Broughton will all be on the ballot paper.

A Ukip spokesman said: ''By a clear majority of NEC members, Steven Woolfe MEP's application was considered to be ineligible as a result of a late submission and as such he did not meet the eligibility criteria. His membership of the party was not in question.''

Three members of the NEC immediately resigned from the committee in protest over the ''deliberate obstruction'' of Mr Woolfe's nomination.

Victoria Ayling, Michael McGough and MEP Raymond Finch said the ''escalating megalomania'' of members of the board had been ''detrimental to the functioning of the party''.

The NEC ''has essentially usurped full governance of the party'' and is ''collectively in pursuit of oligarchy, self-promotion and cronyism'', they said.

''Rather than acting as servants of the party, many on the NEC are acting as the owners. The factionalism has seen some of the party's top talent and most loyal officers wilfully excluded.

''The threat to eject Nathan Gill MEP from the party for holding two offices (when there is no proposed or realistic alternative) and the deliberate obstruction of Steven Woolfe from being a candidate in the party's leadership contest are two recent examples in a long list of decisions that betray a growing factionalism critical of the party's previous leadership and those loyal to it.

''Steven Woolfe is a popular candidate among Ukip's members and should be permitted to represent those that wish to vote for him. To purposefully trawl for technicalities upon which to base a decision to deny his inclusion is not in the best interests of the membership and truly injurious to Ukip.''

They called for an extraordinary general meeting to allow a vote of no confidence in the NEC and said the board's communications should be published ''in order to determine whether the committee is guilty of conflicts of interest or even corruption''.