– Brexit Party has 29 MEPs, with 32 per cent of the vote and largest party in 9 regions
– Tories slump to fifth with just 4 MEPs, down from 15
– Lib Dems top polls in London with 16 MEPs
– Labour have 10 MEPs, with vote share falling by 11 per cent
– Green Party wins 7 MEPs
– UKIP fails to take any seats
The Brexit Party and the Liberal Democrats have been the big winners across England and Wales in the European elections.
Nigel Farage’s party has taken 29 of the 70 seats in England and Wales, while the pro-EU Lib Dems have 16 MEPs – up from just one five years ago.
It has been a horrific night for the Conservatives, with just four MEPs – putting them in fifth place overall.
Labour has so far only seen 10 MEPs elected, while the Greens have seven.
Members of the Brexit party should now be brought in by the government to take part in negotiations with the European Union, senior figure in the party have demanded.
The call by Nigel Farage was echoed by Richard Tice, who has just been elected as one of the party’s three MEPs in the East of England constituency.
Asked on the BBC’ Radio 4 news programme The World at One if the party was “serious” in the demand, he replied: “We seriously expect Westminster to listen this time and understand that voters have said yes we back these capable and experienced candidates. They need to come, they have experience of negotiations.
Tice was less clear on whether the party would be open to an electoral pact with the Conservatives in the event of a general election however.
Pressed on the question, he replied: “We are not going to start talking about pacts now. We have just won an election from a standing start.”
Another new Brexit party MEP, the former Tory MP Ann Widdecombe, told BBC television that the party would contest a general election if the UK did not leave the EU or if it left “in name only”.
Doing so would be difficult but the party had deliberately drawn from a broad political spectrum and would come up with policies it could unite around, she added.
