by political editor Paul Francis

LABOUR suffered a second disastrous election battering when it was pushed into fifth place in the south east region at the European election.

The party saw its share of the vote slump by five per cent compared to 2004 and languishing behind UKIP, which came second to the Conservatives, which polled 812,288 votes.

But while Labour endured another grim night at the polls, there was no actual change in the make up of MEPs for the region, with the parties maintaining exactly the same number of representatives.

The Green party saw the most significant increase in share of the vote, which went up by four per cent. Despite this, it will again just have one MEP for the region, Dr Caroline Lucas.

THE RESULTS FOR THE SOUTH EAST:

• Conservatives: 812,288 votes (no change) 4 MEPs
• UKIP: 440,002 votes (plus 1 per cent) 2 MEPs
• Green Party: 271,506 (plus 4 per cent) 1 MEP
• Lib Dems: 330,340 (- 1 per cent) 2 MEPs
• Labour: 192,592 (- 5 per cent) 1 MEPs
• BNP: 101,769 (+ 1.4 per cent)

The results from the South East Region were delayed after a computer glitch hit the count, along with issues over the validation of voting papers, which took place in Southampton.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage, who was re-elected as an MEP for South East candidate, said: "Last time [2004] we came third, whcih everybody said was a fluke. This time we are second....that is a hell of an achievement."

Speaking after the declaration, he said it was time for Mr Brown to quit: "Gordon Brown - you broke your promise over a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and it is time you left. UKIP has delivered the coup de grace."

Conservative MEP Dan Hannan also used the occasion to demand a general election. "Prime Minister, how much more clearly do we have to speak before you understand us? The nation needs and the electorate demands a dissolution of Parliament."

Green MEP Dr Caroline Lucas said "The irony is that we have seen our vote go up but not quite enough to get us more MEPs but we have seen some tremendous results across the region."

Read Paul's blog on the European elections>>>>

Held on Thursday, 375 million people across 27 countries were able to vote for the 736 members of the European Parliament who will represent their interests for the next five years.

THE MEPs elected were:

Conservative:Dan Hannan, Richard Ashworth, Nirj Deva, James Elles

UKIP: Nigel Farage, Martea Anderson

Lib Dems: Catherine Bearder, Sharon Bowles

Green: Caroline Lucas

Labour: Peter Skinner