European election results 2019: Brexit Party vow to take on Tories and Labour in general election as Tommy Robinson and UKIP obliterated
Labour hints at supporting second referendum as Liberal Democrats win Remain voters
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Your support makes all the difference.Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party has claimed victory in the European parliamentary elections, taking 29 seats and topping the poll in ten of the UK's 11 regions.
On a grim night for the Conservatives and Labour, the pro-EU Liberal Democrats emerged as the other big winners, with leader Sir Vince Cable saying it was “proof that the Lib Dems are the biggest, strongest voice of Remain”.
Theresa May said it was a "very disappointing night" for the Conservatives and once again urged MPs to find a solution to the Brexit crisis.
"Some excellent MEPs have lost their seats, some excellent candidates missed out," she said.
"But Labour have also suffered big losses. It shows the importance of finding a Brexit deal, and I sincerely hope these results focus minds in Parliament"
Boris Johnson, widely considered the frontrunner in the race to replace Ms May, said voters had delivered the Conservative party with a "final warning".
He urged his colleagues to deliver Brexit and "deliver Brexit and set out our positive plans for the country."
At the same time Labour edged closer to support for a second Brexit referendum, after voters in Remain strongholds deserted the party and voted for the Liberal Democrats.
In early-morning messages after seeing the party slump to third place with a 14 per cent share of the vote, both Jeremy Corbyn and shadow chancellor John McDonnell said that the issue of EU withdrawal must be put to a public vote – which could come in a general election or a Final Say referendum.
Mr McDonnell tweeted: “Can’t hide from hit we took last night. Bringing people together when there’s such a divide was never going to be easy. Now we face prospect of Brexiteer extremist as Tory leader and threat of no deal, we must unite our party and country by taking issue back to people in a public vote.”
If you would like to see how the EU election results night unfolded, please see what was our live coverage below:
Home secretary Sajid Javid has announced he is standing in the Tory leadership race:
Sajid Javid, the latest Tory MP to enter the fray to succeeded Theresa May, has kicked off his campaign by pledging to deliver Brexit but also to "bridge divides" by promoting the shared values which unite the UK.
The home secretary backed Remain during the referendum campaign but has since said the UK must leave the EU.
This being politics in 2019, there is also a campaign hashtag: #TeamSaj.
Our political editor Andrew Woodcock has more:
Germany's deputy foreign minister has accused Nigel Farage of trying to divide the UK and Europe "with lies and hate".
Michael Roth said the Brexit Party leader's past terms as an MEP had been marked not by work but "but rather by demagoguery and laziness".
Roth told reporters in Berlin this was his personal view of Farage, who was first elected to European Parliament in 1999, but it applied to nationalists and populists in general.
A member of Germany's center-left Social Democratic Party, Roth said the Brexit Party's rise was the result of a failure to complete Britain's departure from the European Union in recent months.
The leader of Italy's governing 5-Star Movement is blaming abstentions among his voting base for the party's poor performance in the European elections.
Luigi Di Maio acknowledged Monday that ''for us, the European elections went badly", after his party finished third in Italy a year on from topping his country's national vote.
The SWG polling agency said voters who backed the 5-Star Movement last year either were disappointed and stayed home, or voted for Matteo Salvini's hard-line League party.
5-Star took just 17 per cent of the vote, compared with nearly 33% last year. Thirty-eight per cent of those who voted for the party last year abstained, while another 14 per cent voted for the League, according to polling.
Salvini's party captured 34 per cent of Sunday's European vote and the opposition Democratic Party made a surprise comeback to finish second with 23 per cent.
Sajid Javid has received his first ministerial endorsement since announcing his Tory leadership bid this afternoon, courtesy of City minister John Glen:
Scottish Labour MPs have reacted with fury over the EU election results.
The party suffered its worst ever result and some are blaming the Labour leadership for the losses.
"This was Jeremy Corbyn and Richard Leonard’s manifesto, their message, their decision to ignore the membership and what voters were saying to us. It was their election campaign and their mess," writes Ian Murray, MP for Edinburgh South and Martin Whitfield, MP for East Lothian, in a piece in the Edinburgh Evening News.
"They stuck their heads in the Brexit sand because they can’t lead."
Nigel Farage has claimed that it is "extremely unlikely" that a future Conservative leader will take the UK out of the EU by the end of October.
"The Conservative Party are bitterly divided and I consider it to be extremely unlikely that they will pick a leader who is able to take us out on the 31st October come what may," the Brexit Party leader told a press conference in London on Monday.
"We might overnight have made their lives a bit easier but I don't see them being able to deliver and I think the real barrier, the real obstruction to all of this is a two-party system that may well have worked in decades gone by but is no longer fit for purpose."
Labour and the Conservatives suffered poor results in the European elections as support for the Brexit Party and the Liberal Democrats surged.
Nigel Farage has hit out at the Conservative party leadership candidates, while speaking at a press conference in London.
"Which of the leading Tory contenders did not vote for the worst deal in history, Mrs May's new European treaty?" Mr Farage said.
"Why would I trust any of them? Why would I believe any of them?"
The Brexit Party leader also claimed the Labour Party were in "more trouble" than the Conservatives following the European election results.
The pro-Remain vote appears to have surged in Northern Ireland, which has consistently been the focus of Brexit negotiations.
Pro-EU Irish nationalists Sinn Fein have topped the poll, just ahead of the Democratic Unionist Party, which props up the Conservative government.
The cross-community Alliance Party, also appears set to win its first ever European Parliament seat in a surge it says furthers the case for a re-run of the 2016 referendum.
"I think this result is a resounding rejection of Brexit again," said Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald.
"It sends the clearest possible message that people here in the north of Ireland have not consented and do not consent to Brexit and I hope London and Mrs May, and whoever will prove to be Mrs May's successor, hears that message loud and clear and understands that the DUP, while they have a democratic mandate, do not speak for the majority of people who live in the north of Ireland or indeed across the island.
"I think this is a vindication of the politics of Remain, I think it is vindication of the politics of common sense, it's about us standing together collectively and protecting our rights and interests."
Matteo Salvini's far-right League scored a decisive victory in Italy's European parliament elections but a breakdown of polling data reveals that its support lies almost totally in relatively small towns.
The League did not come first in any large city and its coalition partner, the 5-Star Movement, came first in large southern cities, most notably Naples and Palermo.
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