FARAGE HAMMERS TORIES CORBYN TAKES A BATTERING

... and Labour punished as voters treat poll as a new referendum

THE Tories were humiliated by Nigel Farage in the European polls last night as voters punished them over Brexit. Mr Farage’s new Brexit Party was on course to triumph, beating all the main parties despite being launched only a month ago.

As the early results started pouring in, the Tories looked set for one of the worst electoral nights in their history – a near wipe-out with voters appearing to treat the polls as a proxy for a second referendum.

But Jeremy Corbyn, who turned 70 yesterday, faced a similar nightmare as his party’s vote appeared to have collapsed across the country.

Last night, Labour was on course to be humbled in Wales, with some predictions putting them as low as third in terms of vote share.

They also lost swathes of London to the Liberal Democrats as Remain voters deserted them. Even in Mr Corbyn’s north London constituency of Islington, voters flocked to the Lib

Dems. Mr Corbyn last night faced a backlash over his position on Brexit, with shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry calling on the party to explicitly support a second Brexit referendum and campaign to remain. On a dramatic political night:

Tony Blair’s former spin doctor Alastair Campbell said he had voted Lib Dem – the first time in his life he had not voted Labour;

Change UK was humiliated as it polled just 5 per cent in the Remain stronghold of London;

Mr Farage’s Brexit Party was polling above 50 per cent of vote share in some areas and looked set for 31 per cent nationally;

The Tories were wiped out in London, losing all their MEPs;

It appeared as if turnout would be close to 50 per cent, the highest for a Euro election for many years;

Across Europe, far-Right and Eurosceptic parties were on course to win more seats than ever before;

Chancellor Philip Hammond warned that any attempt to force a No Deal Brexit could collapse the Government and let in Mr Corbyn;

Tommy Robinson failed to win a Ukip seat as the party lost all its MEPs.

The first results of the night, for the North East region, saw the Brexit Party pick up two seats and 39 per cent of the vote, double Labour’s vote share which gave it one seat – in 2014 Labour won two seats with Ukip on one.

Labour got 19 per cent or 119,931 votes. The Tories trailed both the Liberal Democrats and Green Party coming in fifth place with just 7 per cent or 42,395 votes.

In London, the Tories came in fifth place with 177,964 votes – with the party’s most senior MEP Syed Kamall losing his seat. The Lib Dems topped the poll in the capital with 608,725, ahead of Labour 536,810, the Brexit Party on 400,257 and the Greens on 278,957.

In the East of England, the Brexit Party polled more than 600,000 votes – pushing the Tories into fourth place.

The Brexit Party took three of the seats, the Lib Dems two and the Tories and the Greens one each.

There were a series of remarkable results. In Kingston, the Lib Dems secured almost 48 per cent of the vote. Anti-Brexit Labour peer Lord Adonis, who was one of the party’s candidates in the Euro elections, tweeted: ‘Very clear that if Labour had been the party of Remain in this election, we would have won.’

One forecast put the Brexit Party on 24 seats, with the Lib Dems on 15, up from just one at the last European elections in 2014. Pollsters Britain Elects said Labour could be pushed into third place with 14 seats, down six, with the Tories fourth on ten (down nine).

The Greens were expected to pick up one seat to gain four in total, with the SNP on two and Plaid Cymru on one. Change UK was expected not to win a single seat.

Labour was braced for a backlash as voters punished them for sitting on the fence over whether to hold a second referendum.

Early indications showed turnout was higher in Remain areas than Leave areas. But the Brexit Party was still expected to be the clear winner.

Before the results were announced, Mr Farage, who is standing in the South East region, said: ‘If you want Brexit, you’ve got to vote Brexit. We did it once, they ignored us, so we’re going to tell them again.’

Voters went to the polls on Thursday, a day before Theresa May announced her decision to resign. The Conservatives did not launch an official campaign for the elections and many activists refused to knock on doors in protest.

Tory MEP Daniel Hannan said he feared the party would be left without any representation at all and blamed Mrs May for not resigning sooner.

He said: ‘To say that we might get the lowest share of the vote in our 185-year history would, at any other time, be an outre forecast. On this occasion, though, it doesn’t begin to express the extent of the cataclysm.’

But Liam Fox said yesterday that disastrous results could force the EU to give the UK a better Brexit deal. Speaking to the BBC, the International Trade Secretary said: ‘The results of the European election will be a shock to the body politic of the European Union... It may make them say that we need to remove the UK and remove the contagion or it may make them say let’s strike a deal.’