Brexit party wins big

You wouldn’t dream about it. Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party, formed just over 6 weeks ago, has scored major victories in the EU elections, thrashing both Labour and most of all the Conservative Party, which has crashed to its lowest vote share since 1834. This is a massive humiliation for the Conservatives, who may have made a real hash of Brexit, but they could never have expected the drubbing they have just received. Teresa May must be relieved that she resigned before this was known; now she can leave this terrible mess for someone else to clear up.

The question is – who would want a poisoned chalice like this? Boris? I doubt it.

The Conservatives gained just 9% of the vote, with 10 of the 12 regions declared. Take a look at the graph below to see the carnage for the traditional UK parties.

At 9% of the vote, Teresa May is doing only slightly better than Winston Peters in 2017.

This is not a general election of course, but Farage has now set his sights on the next one of those, not due for another 3 years, but with a groundswell like this, there will be calls in the UK parliament for an early election.

Nigel Farage and his Brexit Party triumphed in the Euro polls – winning at least 28 MEP seats despite being launched only six weeks ago. Among their triumphs last night, former Tory MP Ann Widdecombe and Annunziata Rees-Mogg, the sister of Conservative Brexiteer Jacob, were elected as MEPs.

The Tories suffered one of the worst electoral nights in their history after falling into fifth place across the country behind even the Greens. But Jeremy Corbyn faced a similar nightmare as his party’s vote appeared to have collapsed. Labour slumped to third, beaten by the Liberal Democrats, after being humbled in strongholds including London and Wales as Remain voters deserted them.

Early this morning the Brexit Party’s share of the vote was 31.3 per cent – ahead of the Lib Dems on 20.3 per cent. Labour were third on just 14.1 per cent, with the Greens next on 12.1 per cent and the Conservatives on a disastrous 9.1 per cent.

In his victory speech, Farage threatened to contest a general election if the Brexit deadlock continues, a move that would threaten to obliterate the Tories. Farage said: ‘It’s also a vote that says 31st October is the next really big day in this process, if we do not leave on that day then you can expect the Brexit Party to repeat this kind of surprise in the next general election.’

Daily Mail UK.

I guess all that stuff about the British being lied to, or not understanding what they voted for, or even that, if a second referendum was held the result would change, was just a lot of wishful thinking on the part of Remainers who just didn’t want to face the truth. They didn’t get the result they wanted, so they harangued and protested in the hope that there would be a change of heart. Guess what? There was no change of heart.

This is a warning to all politicians that if the electorate gives its mandate and is then ignored, they might need to dust off their CVs. There are a few politicians here in New Zealand who might want to think about that.

In the meantime, well done, Nigel Farage. He is an unlikely hero if you think about it. It takes more than a milkshake to douse the man of the people. That was nothing more than a waste of milk.