Recent election results have showed the Labour has suffered its worst post-war defeat after being beaten to third place by the UKIP.

In the European elections, Labour won just 15.3% of the seats. The Tories on the other hand, won with 28.6%. They also beat Labour in Wales but failed to increase their total share significantly.

The BNP gained two seats in Yorkshire and in Humberside in the North West of England – the first time an anti-immigration party has won seats at a national election.

Both Labour and the Conservatives are viewing this negatively. 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.”

Leader of the BNP, Nick Griffin said he was “absolutely delighted” and that there will be “huge changes” in British politics.

Dismal

The results from Northern Ireland are still unknown.

Harriet Harman, deputy leader for Labour said the following about the results: “It was a dismal result. We have to understand the concerns that people are expressing and address them. What we won’t be doing is wringing our hands, being disunited.”

However, David Cameron, leader of the Conservatives is “delighted” with the results. He says: “The Conservative party were the clear winners in these elections. We topped the poll, we increased our share of the vote, increased our number of MEPs, we won in almost every part of the country and had some staggering results like topping the poll in Wales.”

He added that the results showed “an enormous gap opening up between Labour and Conservative” as the Tories got “almost twice as many votes as Labour.”

Extreme Parties Benefit

Other UK-wide Westminster parties results were very similar, leaving space for smaller, more extreme parties to benefit.

UKIP campaigns for Britain to withdraw from the EU and gained 17.4% of the vote, increasing its number of MEPs to 13 – beating Labour into third place.

The UKIP leader Nigel Farage sees this as a huge achievement which sends a clear message 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 southern regions of the country, the Labour party even lost out on fifth place to the Green party.

Nationally, the Green party increased their share of the vote by 8.7%, but blame the electoral system for not gaining more than its current two MEPs, saying: “In the South East we have increased our vote by 50% and we are disappointed it has not translated into a second seat.”

The Liberal Democrats also had a better election than in 2004. Leader Nick Clegg said: “On the European vote we held our own, we actually added an MEP… I think given the very volatile nature of the elections it was a solid result.”

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