Yorkshire MEP says Labour must back Remain in a second referendum after EU election mauling

Richard Corbett appealed to his party leadership in the wake of a humiliating night for Labour, after their support plummeted in the poll.

The Brexit Party stormed the contest, taking 36 per cent of the votes in the region, giving them three MEPs, wiping out Ukip and the Tories and crushing Labour support.

Nigel Farage’s party topped the poll in all but one of the county’s electoral areas, with only York bucking the trend and backing the Liberal Democrats.

Labour took just 16 per cent of the vote – a 13 percentage point drop on the 2014 result - followed by the Liberal Democrats on 15 per cent, the Greens on 13 and the Conservatives on 7.

Labour retained only one MEP, Richard Corbett, who blamed the party’s Brexit stance for the heavy loses in the region and across the country.

He told The Yorkshire Post: “From Labour’s point of view we clearly haemorrhaged votes to the Greens and the Liberal Democrats, much more than to anywhere else.

“That was because of our commitment to holding another vote on the Brexit outcome was insufficiently clear. It is there in our manifesto but it wasn’t articulated well enough.

He added: “I was disappointed but I wasn’t completely surprised because we had it on the doorstep. Voter after voter was saying we like you as candidates, we like Labour but we want to send a message – ‘we have got to stop Brexit or at least put it back to the public, therefore we are voting Green or Lib Dem’.”

“If there was a public vote I think it is quite clear that Labour would campaign to Remain, and I think you are already seeing today that leading party figures are articulating that much more clearly.”

The Brexit party now has three MEPs in Yorkshire and the Humber – John Longworth, Lucy Harris and Jake Pugh.

Support for Mr Farage’s previous party, Ukip, collapsed falling from 31 per cent to in 2014 to just 4 per cent.

Of the three MEPs elected five years ago, Amjad Bashir defected to the Conservatives and more recently Jane Collins joined the Brexit Party – working as an organiser in the run up to the latest vote.

Meanwhile, just days before losing his seat in the European Parliament, Mike Hookem quit as the party’s deputy leader, declaring that he is ready to challenge Gerard Batten for the top job.

Speaking after a victorious evening at the count in Leeds, newly-elected Brexit party MEP Mr Longworth told The Yorkshire Post: “We are obviously delighted that the Brexit party did so well. The Brexit party was number one in every single district in Yorkshire and the Humber apart from York.

“In places like Wakefield, Rotherham we had a vote that was bigger than all the other parties put together and that was in Labour heartlands.

“So, it’s only really in the university towns that that the Liberals and Greens did well and that’s probably to be expected.

On Ukip’s collapse, he said: “It’s to be expected… it’s just imploded. But I think the Brexit Party is just so different from Ukip, frankly. Organisations are made up of people aren’t they?

“If you look at the candidates that were put forward by the Brexit party, they were chalk and cheese when it comes to Ukip.

The Liberal Democrats and the Greens won one seat each in Yorkshire and the Humber, which will be taken by Sheffield Liberal Democrat Councilor Shaffaq Mohammed and former Lord Mayor of Sheffield Magid Magid.

In his acceptance speech, Mr Magid said: “Ten years after Yorkshire elected a BNP MEP we’ve elected a black, Muslim refugee standing for the Green Party. Isn’t that something?”

He added: “This may be the end of one campaign but it is the start of a much bigger one. It is a campaign for compassion, mutual understanding, human rights and against hate in all its forms.”