by Alan Watkins

awatkins@thekmgroup.co.uk

The European elections saw two of the fringe parties make massive gains among Medway voters as the Conservatives notched up their expected poll topper.

UKIP, who want Britain out of the European community and links rebuilt with Commonwealth countries, had almost 50 per cent more votes than Labour who trailed in a poor third.

The British National Party finished fifth, narrowly being beaten to fourth place by the Liebral Democrats, but ahead of the Green Party.

The only other party to get four figure support from the local electorate was the English Democrats.

Cllr Alan Jarrett (Con) said it was a good night for the Conservatives, and disastrous for Labour.

"At last people are waking up," he said.

"Labour has failed them, not least on the economy.

"Our vote held up very well."

Bob Oakley, UKIP's prospective parliamentary candidate for Gillingham and Rainham, said: "This was excellent news for us. It's now a question of whether it is sustainable overall."

None of Labour's three local MPs was available for comment.

Two are junior ministers, posts which may be shuffled during the day by the Prime Minister in the wake of his Cabinet alterations last Friday.

Nick Griffin, BNP chairman, who was one of two party members elected to the EU, said: "In the South East region our average vote was 7.4 per cent which meant the BNP vote was just below the threshold.

"This result can be affected by the fact that the BNP only fought local elections in many areas which had either never seen a BNP candidate before, or which had no record of previous large BNP votes."

The Green Party's Stuart Jeffrey said: "Proportional representation is urgently needed at every tier of election. We must bring our governments out of the 18th century."

RESULTS

British National Party - protecting British jobs 4741

Christian Party "Proclaiming Christ's Lordship" 851

Conservative Party 18502

English Democrats - Putting England First 1698

Jury Team - Democracy, Accountability, Transparency 256

Liberal Democrats 5460

No2EU: Yes to Democracy 613

Pro Democracy: Libertas.eu 425

Socialist Labour Party 521

The Green Party 4283

The Labour Party 8745

The Peace Party - Non Violence, Justice, Environment 210

The Roman Party. Ave! 136

United Kingdom Party 392

United Kingdom Independence Party - UKIP 12841