Voters in Maidstone turned to UKIP in the Euro-elections, in even greater numbers than they had three days earlier for the local council elections.

When the results were announced early this morning, UKIP had topped the polls in the County Town beating the Conservatives into second place.

It means that Janice Atkinson, number two on UKIP’s candidates list, who made several campaigning visits to the town ahead of the election, and whose son attends Maidstone Grammar School, was comfortably elected as one of the new MEPS.

Under the proportional representation system, the Maidstone votes were combined with those from other authorities across the South East to determine the 10 seats for the region.

UKIP topped the poll in most of Kent’s boroughs and ended up returning four MEPs – including party leader Nigel Farage.

The Tories ended down one seat on three, with Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Green party getting one each.

The results of the European Election in Maidstone were:

• UK Independence Party (UKIP) - 15,977

• Conservative Party - 12,450

• Liberal Democrats - 4,846

• Labour Party - 4,612

• Green Party – 2,876

• An Independence from Europe - 1,081

• English Democrats - 367

• British National Party – 348

• Christian Peoples Alliance - 226

• The Peace Party - 148

• Harmony Party - 31

• Liberty Great Britain - 39

• The Socialist Party of Great Britain - 84

• YOURvoice - 56

• The Roman Party - 45

A total of 43,448 votes were cast.

The Liberal Democrats did comparatively well in Maidstone, coming third in the polls ahead of Labour. Elsewhere in the country they were almost universally trounced. Indeed, Catherine Bearder, who also visited Maidstone several times ahead of the polls, and was elected for the South East region, is now the Liberal Democrats’ one remaining MEP across the country.

Those elected as MEPs for the South East Region were:

1. Nigel Paul Farage (UKIP)

2. Dan Hannan (Con)

3. Janice Ann Atkinson (UKIP)

4. Nirj Deva (Con)

5. Anneliese Jane Dodds (Lab)

6. Diane Martine James (UKIP)

7. Richard James Ashworth (Con)

8. Keith Richard Taylor (Green)

9. Catherine Zena Bearder (Lib Dem)

10. Ray Finch (UKIP)