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Beaten by Brexit: Tories, Labour suffer in EU election
Brexit remained the defining factor in the May 23 elections as Nigel Farage emerged as the biggest winner.
Brexit remained the defining factor in the May 23 elections to the European parliament in the UK, with the Conservative and Labour parties suffering the most in results declared overnight, in the second such result after the local elections in early May.
Three Indian-origin candidates were elected as new Members of the European Parliament: Dinesh Dhamija (Liberal Democrats, London), Claude Moraes (Labour, London) and Neena Gill (Labour, West Midlands).
The newly formed Brexit party led by Nigel Farage emerged as the biggest winner, riding on public ennui over the impasse over the UK leaving the European Union, while the pronounced pro-Remain party, the Liberal Democrats, finished second .
The results were interpreted variously as a vote that reaffirms the 2016 referendum’s Leave vote and also as pro-Remain parties garnering more votes than parties that support the Leave position. Some insist the vote reaffirms the need to hold another election or referendum.
Jeremy Hunt, foreign secretary, warned after the results that the Conservative were facing an “existential threat”, while Boris Johnson, party leadership contender, said they were a “crushing rebuke” to the government’s failure to take the UK out of the EU.
Emily Thornberry of Labour said the party should now give up its ambiguous policy on Brexit and campaign for a second referendum: “After three years of Tory failure to deliver a Brexit that works for the whole country, these elections became a proxy second referendum”.
Farage, who has campaigned over the years on leaving the EU, said his party had achieved a historic result: “Never before in British politics has a new party launched just six weeks ago topped the polls in a national election.”
“There’s a huge message here, massive message here. The Labour and Conservative parties could learn a big lesson from tonight, though I don’t suppose that they actually will.”
