THE 2019 European Elections saw the Tories and Labour suffer a humiliating defeat.
We tell you which party won the most seats and how the electoral system works.
Who won the most UK seats?
Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party won the elections.
The Brexit Party won 28 seats, Labour had 10 and the Tories had a dismal three.
The Greens – who also enjoyed a boost from pro-EU voters – were on seven, up from three in 2014.
Mr Farage, who was elected for his new party in the South East, said: “History has been made. This is just the beginning.”
In a warning to the Westminster parties, he said: “If we don’t leave on October 31 then the scores you have seen for the Brexit Party today will be repeated in a general election, and we are getting ready for it.”
Mr Farage repeated his demand for the Brexit Party to be involved in the negotiations ahead of the Halloween deadline.
How do the EU Parliament elections work?
All EU citizens, as long as they are registered to vote, have the right to vote in the European elections.
The UK uses the D’Hondt system of proportional representation which means the number of MEPs a party wins is directly related to the percentage of votes it receives.
Voters choose a single party instead of an individual candidate.
This means all political parties have the chance to send representatives to the European Parliament.
The proportion of seats given by a party directly reflects the proportion of votes won.
In the first round of counting, the party with the most votes is allocated a seat for the candidate at the top of its list.
Under the D’Hondt method, each party’s total number of votes is repeatedly divided – until all seats are filled – by divisor 1 + the number of seats already allocated.
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If it is still top it gains another seat. If not, whichever party has the most votes then gets the seat instead.
The original vote count of the largest party in each round is divided by one plus the total number of seats they have already been allocated, until all the seats for the region have been handed out.
Although the method is considered to be one of the most constant and representative forms of voting, the results do not exactly reflect the votes, as this would lead to parties winning fractions of seats.
EU voters go to the polls every five years to elect Members of the European Parliament (MEPs).
Each country has a specific number of seats based on their population size.
The smallest is Malta and they have six seats, whereas the largest is Germany with 96.
There are 751 MEPs in total and the UK has 73.
Candidates can stand independently or with a party.
They will represent a region of their country, and the number of MEPs for each region depends on population.
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Why is the UK taking part in the EU elections?
The government confirmed the country would be taking part in the EU elections in early May after May administration was forced to push back the date it was leaving the bloc because MPs could not get a majority for her withdrawal agreement.
As the UK was still in the EU at the time of the elections it is forced to take part even though the majority of voters said they wanted to leave in the referendum vote.
The UK went to the polls to elect MEPs on May 23, 2019.
The vote is said to have cost around £150million to hold.
If a Brexit deal is agreed before the election date or soon after then the UK’s MEPS will not take their seats.
But if that doesn’t happen then the newly elected MEPs will take their place in the European Parliament – which sits in Brussels and Strasbourg – in early July.
European Council President Donald Tusk has said that MEPs could sit for “months or even longer” if the negotiations drag on.
At this stage, how long the UK MEPs will continue to sit is anyone’s guess.
