Nigel Farage’s Brexit party recorded a stunning victory in the UK’s European elections with the Lib Dems in second and the two legacy parties, Labour and the Tories trailing far behind.
Of the 64 MEPs declared so far, the Brexit Party won 28 seats, with a vote share of 31.6% (winning the highest share of the vote in all but one of the 10 regions).
The Lib Dems won 15 seats with 20.3% of the vote, up 13.4 points on the last European polls in 2014, and topped the poll in the London region.
They won 27.5% of the vote in Islington, Jeremy Corbyn’s stomping ground, beating off Labour on 26.3%.
Labour won just 10 seats on 14.1%, a massive drop-off of 11.3%, and fell to fifth place in Scotland, their worst performance in a European election.
The Conservative Party won just 3 seats with 9.1% of the vote, 14.9% less than they did last time.
The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg noted: “If this was a first-past-the-post election, they would not have taken a single seat”.
The Greens had a good night winning seven seats at 12.1% vote share, up 4.2%, its best performance since 1989.
UKIP took 3.3.%, a 24 point dive on its previous showing (aka the Farage effect).
That puts parties with an explicit no deal offer at roughly 35% of the vote – really quite staggering.
Speaking to a BBC reporter about whether he would return to Brussels, Nigel Farage said: “I’m afraid so. I’d rather not”.
He also told the BBC’s Today programme that the 28 Brexit Party MEPs should play a role in the next British negotiation with Brussels: “I absolutely insist that we do have a mandate to now be part of that team. We are quite happy to help the government get ready for October 31”.
Speaking after being elected an MEP in the South East, he said the Brexit Party would prepare to challenge at a general election: “If we don’t leave on October 31st then the scores you’ve seen for the Brexit Party today will be repeated in a general election”.
The benighted Change UK group that has had considerable media coverage won zero seats and 3.4% of the vote. Leader Heidi Allen told the BBC: “I think we need to work with other like-minded parties pushing for Remain.”
Indeed, a combined total of pro-second referendum parties came in at a relatively healthy 35%, or around 40% if the Welsh and Scottish Nationalists are included. The BBC’s elections guru Professor John Curtice has cautioned against such a manoeuvre. The country is split, fairly evenly, he says.
So, big gains for Greens, partly a hangover from the Extinction Rebellion headlines, part Remain boost, and a successful night for the Lib Dems, who ran on a stripped back Remain offer and a catastrophic night for the legacy parties, for the Tories, who have failed to deliver Brexit, and for Labour, which still doesn’t quite know what to think about it.
In short, find clarity on Brexit or face being eaten by it.
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Iain Martin and the team make sense of the news, providing commentary and analysis on the stories that matter in politics, geopolitics, economics and culture.