The Conservatives and Labour take a bashing in Britain’s European election

THE ONLY fair conclusion from the European election in Britain is that the country is still split down the middle over Brexit. On a total turnout of around 37%, slightly higher than in 2014, Nigel Farage’s new Brexit Party was the biggest winner, taking some 32% of the vote and 29 seats. Adding in the remnant UK Independence Party took the two clearest pro-Brexit parties to a vote share of 35%. Mr Farage immediately claimed that voters were telling politicians that they wanted Brexit to happen without a deal on October 31st, the current departure date.

Yet if strong Leavers had a good night, so did strong Remainers. The Liberal Democrats got 20% of the vote, giving them 16 seats, and the Green Party 12% of the vote and seven seats. Adding in the new Change UK party, which had a bad night, and the Scottish and Welsh nationalists takes the combined score of pro-Remain and pro-second-referendum parties to almost 40%, well ahead of the two pro-no-deal parties.