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David Cameron, the Prime Minister, responded to the triumph of the UK Independence Party in the European elections (which left the Conservatives in third place for the first time ever in a national poll) by having dinner with other European leaders in Brussels, which he said had ‘got too big, too bossy, too interfering’. Ukip secured 4,352,051 votes, increasing the number of its seats by 11 to 24; Labour took 20, an increase of seven; the Conservatives 19, a reduction of seven. The Liberal Democrats plummeted, narrowly capturing one seat (down from 11). Even the Greens did better, increasing their seats from two to three. Nigel Farage, the leader of Ukip, said: ‘Nick Clegg’s in the most trouble, Ed Miliband’s in quite a lot of trouble, David Cameron’s in some trouble.’ The British National Party lost both its seats. The Roman Party (Ave!), founded by a Frenchman who works as a bus driver in Reading, secured 2,997 votes. The turnout was 34 per cent. Northern Ireland elected two kinds of Unionist and a Sinn Fein MEP by a method of its own. Three men who had been working on the German cargo ship Suntis, berthed at Goole, fell sick and died.
The Electoral Commission launched an investigation into the count of ballots in the local elections at Tower Hamlets, which was twice suspended. Undue influence had been reported at the borough’s polling stations. The local elections in England had brought Labour a gain of 338 seats, bringing its total to 2,101 in the 161 contested local authorities; the Conservatives lost 230 councillors, making their total 1,360; the Liberal Democrats lost 310, leaving them 427; but Ukip, which had only two of the contested seats before, won 163.
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