UKIP to represent Loughborough in Europe

UKIP have won two of the five European parliament seats in the East Midlands.

Former Conservative Roger Helmer, who defected to UKIP in March 2012, was re-elected to represent Loughborough students. He will be joined by fellow UKIP member Margot Parker, as well as Emma McClarkin and Andrew Lewer of the Conservative Party and Glenis Willmott of Labour.

The results mimicked what happened nationally with UKIP taking an unprecedented amount of seats for a non-mainstream party and the Liberal Democrats falling behind the Greens for the first time.

As the European parliament is made up of parties from many different countries, political parties in the UK have to join together with their foreign counterparts to push through their policies. But the most popular far right party in France, the National Front, who have just won a similar astonishing victory, is openly anti-semitic and racist. This creates a dilemma for UKIP who have staunchly refused to sit with them but do need support of the other Euro-sceptic parties.

The results breakdown for the 2014 East Midlands elections in full:

1. United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP)- 368,734

2. Conservatives – 291,270

3. Labour -279, 363

4. Greens – 67, 066

5. Liberal Democrats – 60, 773

6. An Independence from Europe – 21,384

7. British National Party (BNP)- 18, 326

8. English Democrats – 11,612

9. Harmony Party – 2,194