European Elections Results Special

The Liberal Democrats have secured the best ever European Election result in the party's history, expecting to return 16 MEPs and take second place in vote share.

In the South East England region, the Liberal Democrat have returned 3 MEPs on 26% of the vote finishing in second place. We secured 8% in 2014 and our previous best result was 15.3%. In Folkestone and Hythe the Liberal Democrats also came second to the Brexit Party, beating the Green Party and getting more votes that the Coservatives and Labour combined.

Having run an unambiguous campaign to stop Brexit the party has made huge gains across the country, which follow the party's best ever gains in English local election results at the start of May.

Responding to the result Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable said:

"Our clear, honest, unambiguous message has won us our best ever European election result, and pushed Corbyn's Labour into third place.

"We have shown ourselves to be the strongest Remain force in British politics.

"We will always stand up for the people who have put their faith in us, taking this mandate forward to campaign harder than ever to stop Brexit.

"There is a clear lesson for Labour in tonight's results: get off the fence. In trying to please everybody they have pleased nobody.

"With a Tory leadership contest increasing the risk of a "No Deal" Brexit, Britain can no longer tolerate an Opposition which ducks and dives on the biggest issue of the day.

"If you want to see an outward looking Britain, standing tall in the world with our European partners, and offering opportunity to everyone at home, there is no better moment to shape the future of our party and our politics, by joining the Liberal Democrats."

This is the best ever result in the European Elections for the Liberal Democrats and by securing second place in the national vote, it is the first time that the Liberal Democrats have beaten both the Conservative and Labour Parties in a UK-wide election. The Liberal Party last did this 101 years ago.

We are on course to triple our 2014 vote share, and have secured our highest vote share since 2010 and are returning our largest ever group of MEPs.

It is the first time we have topped the poll in London, which sends a clear message ahead of next year's mayoral elections that we will be a serious player.

This is the worst ever result for the Conservatives in a UK-wide election. Their previous worst performance in the European Elections was to return 26 MEPs. They have fallen far, far short.

Labour have also had their worst ever performance in a UK-wide election. They have never returned fewer than 13 seats and are fell well short of that.