European election blow for Labour in the West Midlands
West Midlands voters delivered a crushing verdict on Gordon Brown as Labour slumped into regional third place in the European elections.
Labour saw its ranks of local MEPs slashed to just one – Michael Cashman – as voters dumped the party’s second candidate Neena Gill out of the European Parliament.
The UK Independence Party profited most from the collapse gaining an extra seat to give them two out of the six West Midlands MEPs, Sutton Coldfield businessman Mike Nattrass and Nikki Sinclaire.
Conservatives won the largest share of the vote and two MEPs, have lost a seat as a result of the total being cut from seven last time round. They will be buoyed by strong showings in Edgbaston, Northfield, Erdington, Selly Oak, Walsall, Solihull and Jacqui Smith’s Redditch seat ahead of the General Election.
While standing on the popular anti-EU ticket, UKIP may also have picked up support as a significant number of voters turned their backs on both Labour and Conservatives in the wake of the MPs’ expenses scandal.
But Mike Nattrass, who became UKIP’s first West Midlands MEP five years ago, said he hopes it is not a protest vote against the main parties.
He said: “It’s been an excellent night for us. But I don’t want to be the protest party and do not believe we are.”
Tory Euro-MP Malcolm Harbour disagreed. He said: “We retained our two standing MEPs and are comfortably number one in the region. UKIP has always been a protest vote and they have capitalised on the current view of politics.”
Voter turnouts were around the 30 per cent in Birmingham, the Black Country and Coventry, where there were no local elections last week, but nearer the 40 per cent mark in the surrounding counties,
Despite Gordon Brown’s turmoil, Labour remained in first place in both Birmingham and Coventry, although the Conservatives believe many UKIP supporters will turn to them in a General Election.
Former actor Michael Cashman said that Europe had not been an issue in this election and denied Labour had already lost the next General Election. “Despite the recession and the expenses scandal, the Labour vote is not shifting to either of the two main parties, it has gone to the protest party and this shows that a united Labour Party can fight back.”
Liz Lynne retained her seat for the Liberal Democrats.
In 2004 the Conservatives took 27.3 per cent of the vote, Labour 23.4 per cent, UKIP 17.5 per cent and the Liberal Democrats 13.7 per cent.
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