Former Conservative Pearson elected UKIP leader

LONDON (Reuters) - Former Conservative peer Malcolm Pearson has been elected leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP).

One of five candidates, Pearson, who had been backed by outgoing leader Nigel Farage, received more than half the around 9,900 votes cast, the party said on Friday.

Pearson was made a lord by former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1990 but defected to UKIP, which wants the UK to withdraw from the European Union, in 2007 after accusing the Conservative party of not being sufficiently eurosceptic.

"My ambition is for UKIP to do well enough at the next general election so that we can force a hung parliament and a realignment in British politics," he told reporters after the result of the vote was announced.

He added that the party would concentrate on leaving the European Union, which he said would save Britain billions of pounds, but also pledged to campaign for direct democracy through the promotion of binding national and local referendums.

UKIP does not have any seats at Westminster but came second behind the Conservatives in June's election to the European Parliament, leaving Labour in third. It intends to field 550 candidates at the next national election, due by June 2010.

Farage, who has led the party for three years, announced in September that he would be stepping down to focus his efforts on standing for parliament against Speaker John Bercow.

Convention dictates the big parties do not field candidates against the Speaker, the House of Common's most senior official, but Farage said he decided to stand against Bercow to protest at how Westminster handled the scandal over MPs' expenses.

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan; Editing by Steve Addison)