LAST UPDATE | 27 May 2019
ALMOST THREE YEARS ago, the British population voted to leave the European Union.
On 2 July, the UK will send 73 MEPs back to Brussels from 12 regions, including Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
However, many of them will belong to the eurosceptic Brexit Party and its leader Nigel Farage as they enjoy a 31.7% share of the vote. The Conservative Party and Labour had a bad night, with many predicting complete collapses in certain areas.
Turnout across the UK was low, with just 37% of registered voters going to the polls. That’s still about three percentage points higher than 2014.
All regions have declared final results now. The votes are based on party preference, and the first candidate of the party who tops the poll gets the first seat, and so on.
The Brexit Party has surpassed expectations securing 29 seats, while the Liberal Democrats has seen 16 candidates elected and Labour 10. The Green Party has seven seats, with the Conservative Party on four, the Scottish National Party on three, and Plaid Cymru on one.
Sinn Féin’s Martina Anderson, the Alliance Party’s Naomi Long and the DUP’s Diane Dodds are Northern Ireland‘s three MEPs.
Farage was jubilant, tweeting that “history has been made” and that “this is just the beginning”.
Speaking in Southampton, he said the new party won for a clear reason.
“We voted to leave in a referendum. We were supposed to do so on 29 March and we haven’t. There’s a huge message here,” he said.
The Brexit party leader also said he wants members of his party to be part of the UK’s negotiating team with the EU.
It wasn’t exclusively hard Brexiteers celebrating the result, however.
The Liberal Democrats also enjoyed a fine election, coming in second place with 20% of the vote and increasing their seats on 2014.
Its leader Vince Cable said: “We have shown ourselves to be the strongest ‘Remain’ force in British politics.
There is a clear lesson for Labour in tonight’s results: get off the fence.
Throughout the campaign, the Liberal Democrats used the slogan “Bollocks to Brexit”, and also secured a strong showing in local elections on 3 May.
While the Conservatives knew they were facing a drubbing and barely bothered to campaign, Labour was also punished for refusing to spell out whether it still wanted Britain to be in or out of the EU.
Labour lost to the Liberal Democrats in the borough of Islington in London that Corbyn represents in the UK parliament.
And the Conservatives were beaten by the Brexit Party and the Liberal Democrats in May’s Windsor and Maidenhead constituency in England’s South East.
Labour also collected less than half the votes of the surging Brexit Party in Wales, where the party had lost just once since 1918.
“This issue will have to go back to the people, whether through a general election or a public vote,” Corbyn said in a statement.
“Labour will bring our divided country together so we can end austerity and tackle inequality,” he said.
East Midlands (5 MEPs)
East of England (7 MEPs)
London (8 MEPs)
North East (3 MEPs)
North West (8 MEPs)
Northern Ireland (3 MEPs)
Scotland (6 MEPs)
South East (10 MEPs)
South West (6 MEPs)
Wales (4 MEPs)
West Midlands (7 MEPs)
Yorkshire and the Humber (6 MEPs)
With reporting from Sean Murray and Gráinne Ní Aodha
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