The Brexit Party hasn’t been around for very long and yet, the Nigel Farage-fronted anti-EU movement, a UKIP in turquoise clothing, has stormed the EU elections in the UK.
With the results for Scotland still to come in, nine out of ten regions have voted for the Brexit Party more than any other party on the ballot. In some areas votes for the eurosceptics outnumbered the second-polling party by more than double.
Of the other, more established parties, the Lib Dems also surged massively, gaining close to 20% of the vote share after campaigning from a “bollocks to Brexit” position. The Green Party also did very well for the Green Party, polling at just over 10%, not so far behind the Labour Party, whose vote share slumped to less than 15% amidst confusion over what the party wants over Brexit.
Shadow cabinet ministers, such as Emily Thornberry, are publicly calling on the leadership to change its position on Brexit to match voters’ and party members’ and parliamentarian’s desires, for a confirmatory public vote (aka a second referendum), and a remain campaign.
But Jeremy Corbyn has remained relatively vague, saying the vote must be ‘taken back to the people, whether through a general election or a public vote.’
The worst performance for a long-established party was for the Conservatives, who came in at less than 9%. Considering the party’s outgoing (as in she’s leaving, she’s hardly an extrovert) leader, Theresa May, had repeatedly promised to deliver Brexit over three months ago, the election of British representatives sent to sit in the EU parliament was never meant to happen, so plenty of annoyed Conservative activists refused to campaign in these elections. The Brexit Party didn’t seem so bothered by the prospect of its members only being in situ in Brussels for a few months, though.
As for other new parties, Change UK got less than 3% of the vote, and in places like Wales, it was clear that if people had voted for the near-identical Lib Dems, a Remain party would have had an MEP. The new party must fold into the Lib Dems now, but will the Lib Dems have them?!
You will soon see, in memes or in your own imagination, a totting up of the pro-Brexit vote versus the pro-Remain vote. The Brexit Party, UKIP and the Conservatives count for one side and the Lib Dems, Greens, SNP, Plaid Cymru and Change UK count on the other, but no-one seems to know where Labour stands. And besides, this vote was not a second referendum. Only a second referendum is a second referendum and that might, to some, look closer than ever. As for a general election, well, no-one outside of his party wants to give any more ground to Nigel Farage, who is already calling for a seat at the table at the UK’s Brexit negotiations.
Farage, whose previous party UKIP is a husk without him, has undeniable star power, so wherever he goes, hundreds of thousands of voters will follow. What of his newly elected MEPs, though? Here’s a little bit on some of his most notable ones:
Annunziata Rees-Mogg - Jacob Rees-Mogg’s sister, who has worked in everything from journalism to stockbroking. She used to be a Conservative and David Cameron dropped her from the 2011 pre-selections for MP candidates after she joked that he’d asked her to change her name to Nancy Mogg.
Martin Daubney - former Loaded editor who has since spoken of his regret of ‘pushing the line too far’ by making porn so available to young men. He has a history of chatting online with far-right anti-feminist Twitter personalities such as Milo Yiannopoulos and Sargon of Akkad (UKIP MEP candidate Carl Benjamin, who joked about raping Jess Phillips) and gets frequently fired up about progressive movements towards equality, such as #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter.
Ann Widdecombe - former Conservative MP and cabinet member under John Major, who appeared on Strictly Come Dancing in 2010. She has supported conversion therapy to change the orientation of LGB people, is opposed to same-sex marriage and says, of feminism, ‘women need to stop whingeing, we’ve never had it so good’
Richard Tice - co-founder of Leave.EU, with Arron Banks, the guy who’s been bankrolling Nigel Farage. In the wake of Labour MP Jo Cox’s murder, Leave.EU were the only referendum campaign group to continue campaigning during a deal to take a hiatus out of respect. It is also alleged some of Leave.EU's campaign material was faked in order to stir up anti-immigrant hatred.
Claire Fox - a former revolutionary communist party member who once suggested, because it didn’t match with her political ideals, that ITN had faked footage fo the genocide in Bosnia. Her candidacy caused another candidate to resign, citing Fox’s ‘unambiguous position’ in regard to the IRA.