FULL STORY: Brexit Party wins two MEPs, Labour and Plaid one each

Nathan Gill and James Wells were both elected for the party - which was formed by Brexit figurehead Nigel Farage - while Plaid Cymru's Jill Evans held onto the seat she has held since 1999. Although Labour also retained its single seat - with Jackie Jones also now representing Wales in Brussels - it was a bruising night for the party which has dominated Wales for decades, with Plaid Cymru beating it to second place in the race.

And the Conservatives did even worse - coming fifth behind the Liberal Democrats, and losing their one MEP.

The Brexit Party dominated in Gwent too, coming first in all five council areas. This was generally at the expense of Labour, which came second in all areas except traditionally Conservative-voting Monmouthshire. But Monmouthshire produced one of most surprising results, were in for a shock, with the Liberal Democrats coming in second place and the Conservatives a distant third - a shock result in an area seen as a Tory stronghold.

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Although voting was held on Thursday, results were not declared until Sunday evening once voting had finished in all European countries.

In a fiery victory speech at the declaration in Haverfordwest, which was met with a mixture of cheers and heckles, Mr Gill - who was elected as a Ukip MEP for Wales in 2014, but left the party late last year - said people who voted to leave the EU in 2016 had been "cheated".

Describing Wales as "a Brexit nation", he said: "The people have spoken today - they want their Brexit.

"We are mad as hell. If you do not give us our Brexit The Brexit Party are here to stay. This is not a flash in the pan - you will hear commentators say this is just a protest vote - it is not. It is anger in the two party state that must be changed."

Nathan Gill

Speaking afterwards Mr Gill said he was “ecstatic” about the result.

“To get 50 per cent of the MEPs elected is a heck of achievement, I’m very proud of that," he said.

Saying "We know the people of Wales are still Brexit", he added: “I was supposed to be retired from politics. I have come back because I have dedicated 15 years of my life to this and I can’t just walk away from it, but I’m pretty mad because this is not what we do in Britain - we honour and we respect votes.

“The reason we have done so well is because there is this tangible anger out there – it’s not just me who is mad, millions of people are mad.”

Jill Evans giving her victory speech

Ms Evans, who has already represented Wales in Brussels for 20 years, said Plaid coming ahead of Labour in the election was "a massive step forward for us as party."

“Politics in Wales is changing," she said.

“I think we’ve seen that quite dramatically tonight.

“I don’t take lightly someone who has voted Labour all their lives then deciding in this election to vote for Plaid Cymru for the first time in their lives – that’s not easy, but they’ve decided to do that based on their strong convictions about the EU.”

And she added she believed the vote was a validation of the campaign for a second referendum.

"The majority of votes went to the remain parties," she said.

“This proves what we thought - that people are not happy to leave the EU, people don’t accept that this decision is one which has been made, and people want a people’s vote. It strengthens our call for a people’s vote and we will continue to campaign for that.”

In his victory speech, Mr Wells, who left his job at Newport's Office for National Statistics to run in the election said The Brexit Party "will carry on fighting to respect the referendum result".

James Wells

"Five weeks ago I had no idea I would be standing here tonight as an MEP," he said. "We are ordinary people who have decided to take this step, who are fed up with our MPs and what they are doing, denying us the referendum result.

"We now have a clear mandate to take the UK out of the EU and we will continue to fight to make sure that's respected."

But there was clear disagreement on what the vote actually meant, with Ms Jones, who was elected to the European Parliament for the first time, saying, despite the strong showing for The Brexit Party, the overall vote for pro-remain parties showed Wales "is now clearly a remain nation".

Jackie Jones

But she said she believed Labour “could have been clearer” in its campaigning ahead of the election.

“Brexit has divided many, many people and many families,” she said.

“The UK Labour position of trying to bring the country back together is one we should definitely pursue, maybe in a different way, but we’ll see – that’s for another day.”

She added: “I hope to do some really good, positive work for the people of Wales.

“There is a lot to do, there is a lot to get right to counteract the austerity measures which have blighted our country.

“My wish would be to work on those issues where I can.”

Derek Vaughan had represented Wales in the European Parliament for Labour since 2009, but decided not to run again this year. Conservative Kay Swinburne, who was also first elected in 2009, also decided not to run this year.

Turnout across Wales was 37.3 per cent - up from 32 per cent in the 2014 European Election.

ANALYSIS - BY ARGUS POLITICS REPORTER IAN CRAIG

THERE'S an awful lot to unpick from these results - the fact that both sides of the leave/remain debate are claiming the vote figures are a clear validation of their position suggests this is something we'll be talking about for some time to come.

Obviously The Brexit Party are the big winners, but the result for Plaid is significant too - to come second ahead of Labour is, as Jill Evans said, a massive step forward for them, and gives them a great foundation to build on ahead of the 2021 Assembly Election. The Lib Dems will also no doubt be happy with their result, even though it wasn't quite enough to win them a seat. Are voters finally ready to forgive them for the coalition years? It looks like that might be the case.

While Labour kept their one seat, there are going to be some very uncomfortable conversations going on in Labour Party HQs in Cardiff and London over the next few days and weeks. This was the first real test of a Mark Drakeford-led Welsh Labour, and they didn't come out of it too well. They've got time to course correct, but they have to do it now.

As for the Conservatives, as the party in power in Westminster they were always going to take a drubbing in this election - but by just how much is a real shock. The fact that The Green Party was less than 2,000 votes behind them across Wales as a whole shows just how dire things are for them.

So it seems all bets are off. A party which didn't even exist two months ago has half of Wales' MEPs, and - in Europe at least - Labour have fallen behind Plaid for the first time. What is it they say about living in interesting times?

FULL RESULTS

Wales:

• The Brexit Party: 271,404
• Plaid Cymru: 163,928
• Labour 127,833
• Liberal Democrats: 113,885
• Conservative: 54,587
• The Green Party: 52,660
• Ukip: 27,566
• Change UK - The Independent Group: 24,332

Turnout: 37.3 per cent

Regional breakdowns:

Newport:

• The Brexit Party: 12,270
• Labour: 6,934
• Liberal Democrats: 4,821
• Plaid Cymru: 3,277
• Conservatives: 2,754
• The Green Party: 2,172
• Ukip: 1,200
• Change UK - The Independent Group: 1,065

Turnout: 32.05 per cent

Torfaen:

• The Brexit Party: 9,088
• Labour: 4,303
• Liberal Democrats: 2,701
• Plaid Cymru: 2,533
• Conservatives: 1,459
• The Green Party: 1,325
• Ukip: 1,002
• Change UK - The Independent Group: 795

Turnout: 33.7 per cent

Monmouthshire:

• The Brexit Party: 9,978
• Liberal Democrats: 6,183
• Conservatives: 3,431
• Plaid Cymru: 3,264
• The Green Party: 2,808
• Labour: 2,595
• Change UK - The Independent Group: 1,140
• Ukip: 802

Turnout: 43.57 per cent

Blaenau Gwent:

• The Brexit Party: 5,995
• Labour: 3,679
• Plaid Cymru: 2,072
• Liberal Democrats: 1,058
• Ukip: 806
• The Green Party: 646
• Change UK - The Independent Group: 475
• Conservatives: 454

Turnout: 30.38 per cent

Caerphilly:

• The Brexit Party: 15,808
• Labour: 8,354
• Plaid Cymru: 7,548
• Liberal Democrats: 3,795
• The Green Party: 2,302
• Change UK - The Independent Group: 1,182
• Ukip 1,846
• Conservatives: 1,552

Turnout: 32.9 per cent