Meltdown for Labour and Tories as Farage triumphs
●SNP surges as Scotland fights the Brexit tide
The Brexit Party swept to an emphatic victory in the European elections across the UK last night while Scots delivered another dramatic poll triumph for the SNP.
Nigel Farage’s newly-formed party looked set to capture a seat in Scotland, but it was the Nationalists who won a commanding victory north of the Border where parties opposing Brexit were on course for a majority.
A bruising night for the Conservative sand Labour saw both parties suffer major losses as the British public delivered a damning verdict of their handling of the constitutional crisis that has engulfed UK politics.
The Liberal Democrats, who have campaigned for a second referendum, were poised to claim second place Uk-wide, indicating that the polarisation across British politics over “Remain” and “Leave” remains as strong as ever.
Louis Stedman-bruce looked set to seize a seat north of the Border for Mr Farage’s party backing a “No Deal” departure form the EU and it was primed for widespread gains.
The SNP, which came out on top as expected with around 40 per cent of the early votes, saw the party’s Alyn Smith and Christian Allard heading to Brussels as MEPS.
Mr Smith said last night :“Scotland’s a different country. We’ve got a different view of how we see our place in the world.
“We’ve got a different view about how we want to interact with our European continent. We voted clearly remain in the initial EU
referendum and that vote has been clearly replicated with the vote which is doing well for my party.
“Taking the results in the round, it’s clear that Scotland’s for Europe–we have voted Remain again. That will cannot be ignored.”
Scots voted 62 percent in favour of staying in the EU in the 2016 referendum but the weight of votes south of the Border swung the outcome in favour of Leave.
The three other Scottish seats remained up for grabs as results were being counted last night with the SNP in the running for an unprecedented third seat.
Mr Stedman-bruce’s victory came at the expense of Ukip, which lost the seat it won in Scotland.
There was better news for the Lib Dems, who looked on course to finish second across the UK.
The outcome is likely to heap the pressure on the contenders for the Tory leadership to take a hard line and getting Brexit finalised without a deal.
Among the early results in Scotland saw the SNP top in East Ayrshire with 41.0 per cent while the B rex it Party took 16.4 per cent. Labour was third on 13 per cent with the Tories on 11 per cent.
The B rex it Party’ s victory across the UK saw it claim over 30 per cent of the vote while the Tories were struggling to take 10 per cent just days after Theresa May announced her departure as Prime Minister.
The first seats declared on the night saw former Scottish Tory MS P Brian Monteith win a seat in the nor theast of England for the Brexit Party, which took two seats in the region, while Labour took one seat. The Brexit Party’s 39 per cent share of the vote was double the 19 per cent racked up by Labour.
Labour’ s shadow foreign secretary Emily Th or nb erry blamed the lack of clarity about the party’s position on Brexit for its poor showing.
“We went into thee lection where the most important issue was what was our view on leaving the European Union and we were not clear about it.
“We were not clear on the one single thing that people wanted to hear and sent people out to campaign on that and unfortunately we just weren’t clear enough.”
She said the party must now come out clearly in favour of a second vote on leaving the EU.
The misery for the Tories continued just days after the announcement of Theresa May’s departure as leader, as the party was left heading for about 10 per cent of the vote.
The omens were bad for the big two when the first results of the night came through in Leeds and saw Brexit claim victory with 29 per cent of the vote. Labour slumped to 20 per cent (-13) while the Tor y vote was down by 12 per cent. Other results in ares like Sedgmoor in Somerset and Newcastle in the north-east saw big wins for the Brexit Party.
Turnout was up considerably north of the border by 6 per cent in some places, despite a lacklustre c amp aign,suggesting that S cots have been prompted to turnout by the recent Brexit turmoil. Edinburgh recorded a 50.2 per cent turnout, an increase from 41.6 per cent in the 2014 vote.
It was a similar picture across the EU, where the traditional parties had a bad night, while the far right enjoyed a surge in support. The Greens also fared well. In France, president Emmanuel Macron looked poised to suffer defeat to Marine Le Pen of the National Front.
Seventy-three MEPS will be elected to represent the UK, but they may only be in office for six months with the UK still poised to leave the EU in November.
The vote in the UK was never meant to happen at all following its decision to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum.