UKIP wiped out as Brexiteers switch
UKIP face obliteration after a disastrous night of local election results which saw the party lose every seat they were defending.
The millions of voters who backed UKIP in the 2015 election appear to be flocking back to the Tories after their success in the EU referendum.
UKIP lost the 141 seats they were defending and gained just one off Labour in Lancashire.
It saw the party completely wiped out in their rural heartlands like Lincolnshire, Suffolk and Essex.
“It’s over,” said Douglas Carswell, who was UKIP’s only MP before standing down last month and backing the Tories.
“Thousands of UKIP supporters out there realise the only way to make sure we get the Brexit deal we need to is to make sure Theresa May gets a mega mandate.
“We get a lot of straight switches from UKIP to the Conservatives – I hope that gets replicated in the general election.” The results suggested UKIP will slump to just five per cent in next month’s general election, in a distant fourth place with zero MPs.
They got 12.6 per cent of the vote at the 2015 election.
Bungling leader Paul Nuttall insisted the party have “a bright future” but admitted “there is nothing they could have done in the face of a big national swing to the Tories”.
He added: “We are the victims of our own success and now we pick ourselves up and go on to further success in the future.”