MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

UK electorate furious: trounces Labour and main parties system

Advance of small parties send shockwaves through British politics and confirm PM Brown exit

Britain’s ruling Labour party has suffered its worst post-war election result as it was beaten into third place by UKIP and saw the BNP gain its first seats at Brussels. Labour's share of the vote at the European elections was just 15.3% - worse than party bosses had feared.

The Tories won with 28.6%, beating Labour in Wales but failing to significantly increase its total share. The results sent shockwaves through British politics and led to renewed calls for Gordon Brown to quit as PM.

The BNP gained a seat in Yorkshire and Humberside and in the North-West of England, where party leader Nick Griffin was elected - the first time the anti-immigration party has won seats at national elections.

Their result was condemned across the political spectrum, with both the Tories and Labour calling it a “sad day” for British politics.

Health Secretary Andy Burnham said: “The BNP is like the ultimate protest vote. It is how to deliver the establishment a two-fingered salute. I think largely it is a comment on Westminster politics.”

Conservative Party chairman Eric Pickles said the BNP had been able to make its breakthrough because of Labour weakness.

“What has essentially happened is that there has been a retreat particularly by Labour but we haven't been able to fill that particular vacuum,” he said, adding he was “sad about that”.

But in his victory speech, Mr Griffin said: “The waters of truth and justice are once again flowing freely over this country. It is a great victory. We go on from here.”

With results in the Western Isles of Scotland and Northern Ireland still to come, it is clear that Labour suffered one of its most abject results of all time.

But on a night when the other Westminster parties were effectively treading water on their 2004 European results, with the Lib Dems coming fourth and the Tories increasing their share by just over 1%, leaving the smaller parties to benefit from public anger over the expenses scandal and the economy.

UKIP, which campaigns for Britain's withdrawal from the EU, gained 17.4% of the vote and increased its number of MEPs to 13 - beating Labour into third place.

Leader Nigel Farage said his party's performance was a “hell of an achievement,” as its chances were written off by some pundits ahead of the campaign and it claimed it had not had a chance to properly debate the European issue.

He said it sent a clear signal to Gordon Brown: “He has been beaten by a party that he mocked and derided as being on the fringes - so if we have beaten him, he has got to go.”

In two English regions, the South-East and South-West, the Green Party beat Labour into fifth place.

Nationally, the Greens increased their share of the vote to 8.7% but leader Caroline Lucas blamed the electoral system for her party's failure to gain more than its current two MEPs.

“Even though our share of the vote has gone up by about 50% our representation hasn't,” she said.

Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan, whose YouTube attack on Gordon Brown became a worldwide hit, said Labour was enduring its worst poll performance since it became a national party in the 1920s.

“I am not sure people have a complete grasp of the magnitude of what is happening,” he told BBC News.

And he repeated Conservative calls for a general election, saying: “The only reason now for keeping Gordon Brown is fear of the electorate”.

Labour's group leader in the European Parliament, Glennis Willmott, blamed Labour's disastrous showing on the Westminster expenses scandal, which she said was the “only thing people were talking about on the doorstep”.

But she called on the party to rally behind Mr Brown, as she claimed he was the best person to lead the country out of economic recession.

“We should stop all of this nonsense and we should be uniting behind our leader and giving him our full support,” she told BBC News.

The Lib Dems saw their share of the vote shrink slightly on 2004, but former leader Charles Kennedy said the result was decent given the “volatile” state of politics at the moment.

In Scotland, SNP leader Alex Salmond hailed a “historic” victory after the Nationalists hammered Labour.

Turnout down

Across Scotland the SNP secured 29% of the vote to Labour's 21%, comfortably achieving the target the SNP leader had set his party at the start of the campaign.

Welsh Labour also suffered humiliation in the European elections, with the Conservatives topping the poll.

It is the first time since 1922 Labour has failed to come first in a Welsh election, as its vote dropped by 12%.

Labour, Conservatives and Plaid Cymru won a seat each, as did UKIP, which will send its first Welsh MEP to Brussels.

The turnout, with Northern Ireland yet to declare, is around a third of the vote, down 4% from 2004, but that is largely down to the fact that some areas had all-postal ballots last time. There was no sign that the expenses scandal had led to a boycott of the polls.

The results are likely to pile further pressure on Gordon Brown, who faces a crunch meeting of Labour MPs on Monday, which may decide his future.

Former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer earlier repeated his call for a new leader to re-unify the party.

“I think unity will only come with a leader that the mainstream votes for,” he said.

In the English local elections held on Thursday the Conservatives got a projected 38% of the vote, the Lib Dems 28% and Labour 23%. (BBC)