In early results on Sunday evening, the Brexit Party’s dominance in the North East of England, the first region to be counted, could be a sign of things to come. Taking 39 per cent of the vote share, Nigel Farage’s party has secured two MEPs out of the three available in the region, with Labour taking the third. This bodes well for the Brexit party at the beginning of a night of counting, and Labour should be very worried by these early results. Before tonight, Labour had two MEPs in the North East. In tonight’s results, Labour’s vote share has fallen by 11 per centage points.
As predicted, Conservative vote share has fallen drastically across the UK – they were beaten by the Greens in the West Midlands (where the Brexit Party took three seats). Labour’s losses at the hands of the resurgent Lib Dems in the south – and Brexit Party in the north (and also places like Cambridge) – is the other story of the night. Labour has been beaten by the Brexit Party in London and in Leeds. In Islington, Jeremy Corbyn’s home turf, the Lib Dem vote increased almost fivefold while the Labour vote almost halved. In Scotland, Labour looks set for a Tory-style wipeout – finishing sixth in Perth & Kinross and winning less than three per cent in the Borders, with plenty more results to come. When all votes are counted, the upshot of all this could be that neither Labour nor the Tories will be in a rush for a general election anytime soon.
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