Euro election results destroy Labour

Monday, 8 June 2009 5:03 PM

By Ian Dunt

Labour has been hammered by a series of disastrous results in the European elections, gaining only 15.3 per cent of the vote.

Meanwhile, the British National party (BNP) managed to send two MEPs to the European parliament.

European election results

politics.co.uk's dedicated European election page with detailed region-by-region results

BNP leader wins European parliament seat

The figures will make dreadful reading for Gordon Brown, whose position will be further undermined ahead of a meeting with the Parliamentary Labour party tonight.

"Our supporters are absolutely furious with us about expenses," deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman told the BBC.

The party lost five MEPs - two to the BNP - and are down by seven per cent.

Some electoral regions were worse than others. Labour was down a huge 12 per cent in Wales. The Tories came in first place in the country, with 21 per cent.

The Welsh result will be hugely damaging to Labour. Coming second to the Conservatives in an area which traditionally votes strongly to the left will be worrying news to party officials.

Overall, prejections sugggest Labour will come in third place tonight, after the Tories and the UK Independence party (Ukip). They would be saved from fourth place only by a poor Lib Dem showing.

While Labour performed towards the lower end of already pessimistic predictions, the Conservatives and Lib Dems did not have a good night either.

The Tories are failing to improve on their vote five years ago, while the Lib Dems appear to be stillborn.

The Tories increased their vote by 1.2 per cent, with 4,012,600 votes, while the Lib Dems were down 1.1 per cent, despite gaining one MEP.

Smaller parties have been the success story of the night. The BNP accomplished its objectives, while the Greens have upped the number of people voting for them, despite remaining with just two MEPs - a fact which can largely put down to the regional representation system.

They did, however, gain 1,223,303 votes, up 2.5 per cent on last year.

Scottish results saw a strong SNP victory over Labour while early indications from Northern Ireland showed a severe fall in DUP support.

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• europe
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• european elections
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• foreign policy