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EU flag by fdecomite
The results of the European elections on 4th June came out last night with the West Midlands region mirroring the national results. The Conservatives made 0.7% gains whilst UKIP increased their share of the vote by 3.8%, beating Labour to second place.
The West Midlands region, which includes Lichfield and Burntwood, now has two Conservative MEPs and two UKIP MEPs. The remaining votes secured one seat each for Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
Whilst Labour’s share declined by 6.4% from last year, the region saw the British National Party and Green Party increase their share of the vote with 8.6% and 6.2% of the vote, respectively. This is in the context of an election where the BNP gained it’s first two seats in the European Parliament.
The BNP didn’t actually gain any more votes than the last European elections nationally although in the West Midlands they picked up 14,173 more votes than last time around.
Nationally, it is widely believe that the lower turnout this year has led to the BNP’s gains, but locally turnout only dropped by 1% so it appears more people are voting for the BNP in the region.