Monday 27 May 2019 8:29 pm | Updated: Tuesday 18 June 2019 2:20 am

Tories and Labour in a spin after disastrous EU election results deliver victory to Nigel Farage

Theresa May today lamented a "very disappointing night" for the Tories as voters deserted them in their droves for the Brexit party, the clear winner of the EU elections.

May, who has pledged to step down as leader on 7 June, said she hoped the results would "focus minds" on finding a Brexit deal in parliament after the Tories suffered their worst poll in recent history. They won just four seats in the European Parliament and came fifth place overall, behind the Greens.

Nigel Farage said the results – in which the Brexit party won 31.6 per cent of the vote – meant there was a "clear mandate" for his 29 MEPs to have a say in the ongoing Brexit negotiations.

“I absolutely insist that we do have a mandate to now be part of that team," he told the BBC. "We are quite happy to help the government get ready for 31 October," he added, referring to the UK's revised scheduled exit date from the EU.

The electorate's disdain for the two main parties over Brexit was made clear in its rejection of Labour, which won 10 seats in parliament and 14.1 per cent of the vote.

The election aftermath opened up a major rift in the party over the leadership's stance on a second referendum. Shadow chancellor John McDonnell, who has been lukewarm about a second referendum, called on the party to make it policy, while foreign secretary Emily Thornberry said her party had been dealt a drubbing because it was not clear about its view on leaving the EU.

“Of course we want a general election, but realistically, after last night, there aren’t many Tory MPs who will vote for an election, it will be like turkeys voting for Christmas," McDonnell told the BBC.

“So our best way of doing that is by going back to the people in a referendum and I think that’s what our members want. “If there can be a deal, great, but it needs to go back to the people. If it’s a no-deal, we’ve got to block it and the one way of doing that is going back to the people and arguing the case against it because it could be catastrophic for our economy."

The Liberal Democrats and the Green Party, meanwhile, capitalised on Remain voters' frustrations with the two main parties and won 16 seats and seven seats, respectively.

Change UK, the party set up by dissenting former Labour and Tory MPs, failed to register with voters and won no seats.

After the results came in, minds quickly turned to the leadership race to replace May.

Former foreign secretary and front runner Boris Johnson warned that the voters who deserted the Tories for the Brexit party would never come back unless the UK left the EU on 31 October. In his column for the Daily Telegraph, he said the next Prime Minister must be prepared to leave the EU with or without a deal on the crunch date. “No one sensible would aim exclusively for a no-deal exit. No one responsible would take no-deal off the table," he wrote.

The current foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, who has also said he will stand in the race, said: "We knew it was coming but still a painful result. Existential risk to our party unless we now come together and get Brexit done."

The extent of Conservative voters' disaffection with the party over its handling of Brexit was laid bare in a post Euro-election poll by Tory donor Lord Ashcroft. Over half of the 2017 Conservatives who cast a vote in the election switched to the Brexit Party; while 12 per cent went to the Lib Dems. Nearly 40 per cent of those who voted Labour in 2017 stayed with Labour, while 22 per cent went to the Lib Dems, 17 per cent to the Greens and 13 per cent to the Brexit party.