Councilbust

 The EU Election results were announced last night, demonstrating a Tory victory across the country.

 In the East of England region, in which Southend falls, the Conservatives received 31.2% of the vote.

 Though the number of seats allocated to each party in the Eastern region did not change, the Tories increased their percentage of the vote by 0.4%, and maintained their three seats. Those seats will be held by Geoffrey Van Orden, Robert Sturdy and Vicky Ford.

 Second came the UK Independence Party, with 19.6% of the vote and so two seats in the European Parliament, which represents no change from the last round of elections. John Agnew and David Campbell Bannerman will represent their voters as MEPs.

 The Liberal Democrats managed to hold their seat for Andrew Duff, despite losing 0.2% of their votes from the last election. Meanwhile, Labour suffered a 5.8% drop with 10.5% of the vote, although this was not enough to lose the party its MEP, Richard Howitt.

 The Green Party was close behind Labour with 8.8% of the vote, gaining 3.2% on the last election’s figures, but the real focus of the EU elections 2009 was the growth of the British National Party.

 The BNP took 6.1% of the East of England’s vote, taking 97,013 votes in total. This represents a 1.7% growth since the last EU elections. The party also now has two MEPs.

 BNP leader Nick Griffin was elected MEP for the North West region, whilst Andrew Brons was elected MEP for Yorkshire and Humber.

 Though the BNP did not actually secure any more votes than it did in 2004, voter turnout in general was lower this year, at just 15,136,932, (just under 35% of the electorate), lowering the bar for BNP entry into the European Parliament.