Brexiteers triumph

Farage revels in victory as Conservatives and Labour belted

ANTI-EU populist Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party have triumphed and the ruling Conservatives endured a historic blow in European Parliament elections in which Britain was never meant to vote.

The pro-EU Liberal Democrats and the Greens capitalised on their demands for a second Brexit vote and made major gains in an election dominated by debates over Britain’s place in Europe.

The poll was held against the backdrop of political disarray in the UK that saw Prime Minister Theresa May announce her resignation after failing to deliver Brexit on time.

Mr Farage hailed the result and demanded for his Brexit Party to be included in a new round of negotiations with Brussels. The original 2016 Brexit campaign figurehead warned that failure to leave the EU on October 31 – the latest Brexit deadline – would see his party replicate its victory in a general election.

“We are getting ready for it,” Mr Farage warned in Southampton.

Britain voted to leave the EU by a 52-48 per cent margin in a seismic 2016 national poll.

It was supposed to have left the EU on March 29 but got held up by parliamentary deadlock and deep divisions over strategy in May’s government.

With 90 per cent of the vote counted, the results showed the Brexit Party winning with 31.6 per cent.

Mrs May’s bickering Conservative Party – now in the throes of a leadership contest – did as poorly as many of its leaders had feared.

The partial results showed it on 9.1 per cent and trailing in fifth place behind the Greens in fourth on 12.1 and double the 2014 EU election outcome.

Vince Cable’s pro-EU Liberal Democrats surged to 20.3 per cent from 6.7 per cent in 2014 and were well ahead of the 14.1 per cent of the main opposition Labour Party of socialist Jeremy Corbyn.

Labour lost to the Liberal Democrats in the borough of Islington in London that Mr Corbyn represents in the UK parliament.