European elections 2019: Brexit party leads UK results with Lib Dems in second – live

Labour and Tories suffer heavy losses as Brexit party and Lib Dems surge EU election live results 2019: across EuropeEuropean election latest results 2019: across the UKGreens surge: parties make strongest ever showingMarine Le Pen ahead of Macron’s centrist party, say exit polls 2.57am BST In case you missed this or are just logging on to this live blog, it’s worth looking at this graphic below, that shows, with 99% of the vote counted in the UK, remain parties have taken 40.4% of the vote, while hard Brexit parties have taken 34.9% and the Conservatives and Labour have taken 23.2% between them. UK: 99% counted.Remain parties: 40.4%Hard Brexit parties: 34.9%Conservatives/Labour: 23.2%#EP2019 #Brexit #EuropeanElections2019 #EUelections2019 pic.twitter.com/D9CgBtYmNd 2.46am BST With so many results coming in tonight, and so many parties and coalitions to get your head around, Reuters has published a useful overview:Parties committed to strengthening the European Union held on to two-thirds of seats in the EU parliament, official projections from the bloc’s elections showed on Sunday, though far-right and nationalist opponents saw strong gains. France’s Emmanuel Macron, who has staked his presidency on persuading Europeans that the EU is the answer to the challenges of an uncertain, globalising world economy, took a personal hit when his centrist movement was edged into second place by Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration, anti-Brussels National Rally. But Macron’s Renaissance, built on the ruins of centre-left and centre-right parties, added to gains for liberals at the EU level as turnout bounced sharply across the bloc. Along with a surge for the Greens, that meant four groups occupying the pro-EU middle ground lost under 20 seats, securing 505 seats out of 751, according to a projection by the European Parliament. That may complicate some policymaking, as a two-party “grand coalition” of the conservative European People’s Party (EPP) and the Socialists (S&D) no longer has a majority. The liberals, with over 100 seats and Greens, with nearly 70, want a big say. But it also dents the hopes of Le Pen, Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and others who have been seeking to disrupt attempts to forge closer EU integration. Salvini called the elections a mandate for a shake-up in Brussels. But tensions among nationalists, who also include the Polish and Hungarian ruling parties and the new Brexit Party of British campaigner Nigel Farage, have limited their impact on policy. “The big thing is that the gains for the extremists were not very substantial,” Guntram Wolff, head of the Bruegel economics think-tank in Brussels, said. Luxembourg’s liberal Prime Minister Xavier Bettel tweeted: “Europe wins! Voter turnout very high and pro-European parties are strongest.” Continue reading…
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