Last week’s elections for the European parliament were a significant national success story for UKIP, and the East Midlands echoed this unwelcome trend.  UKIP polled first in our region with 32.9% of the vote – one of the highest proportions returned from any region.  There are now two UKIP, two tory and one labour MEPs in the East Midlands.

The results for the small far-right parties were, happily, very poor.  Mirroring their national decline, the BNP polled only 1.64% of the East Midlands vote (down from 8.7% in 2009, the largest percentage downswing of any party).  They got even less votes here than the new and obscure AIFE eurosceptic party, and their disastrous electoral meltdown continues.  Ex-MEP Nick Griffin is vowing to continue as party leader – welcome news for anti-fascists, who applaud the greedy incompetent as he drags the BNP further into the political wilderness.  Keep up the good work, Nick!

The English Democrats polled just over 1%, down from 2.3% in 2009.