LABOUR fell to third place in the West Midlands in the European Parliament election, winning one of the six seats available.

THE UK Independence Party won two seats, as did the Conservatives, with the Liberal Democrats retaining one.

UKIP’s share of the vote was up 3.8 per cent on the previous elections in 2004, while Labour’s was down by 6.8 per cent.

Before the vote, Labour had two MEPs and the Conservatives had three, with one UKIP and one Liberal Democrat.

Labour's Neena Gill lost her seat but her colleague, Michael Cashman, retained his.

The Tories won 396,847 votes, UKIP 300,471, Labour 240,201 and the Lib Dems 170,246.

For the Conservatives, Phillip Bradbourn and Malcolm Harbour were elected, having been in office for the last ten years.

Nikki Sinclaire won a place as UKIP’s new MEP in Brussels, along with fellow party member, Mike Nattrass and Lib Dem Liz Lynne.

The British National Party received 121,967 votes - an 8.6 per cent share, which was 1.1 per cent up from 2004.

Other independent parties, such as the Green Party, the English Democrats and the Christian Party all saw increases in the vote share of one per cent or more.

This year’s elections chose six MEPs to hold office in Brussels and Strasbourg, a reduction from seven last time round.

The UK is split into 12 electoral areas, with Wyre Forest residents voting for a West Midlands candidate.

The turnout in Wyre Forest for the election was 37.96 per cent, which was 0.05 per cent higher than for the Worcestershire County Council election last Thursday but lower than 2004’s 39 per cent turnout.

Nationally Labour suffered its worst post-war election result as it was beaten into third place by UKIP and saw the BNP gain its first seats at the European Parliament.

The BNP gained a seat in Yorkshire and Humberside and in the north west of England, where party leader Nick Griffin was elected.

The European election used the proportional representation system, where votes were cast for a party and not an individual.

The total number of votes for each party was added up throughout the West Midlands and the six seats were shared by the parties, reflecting their share of the vote.

Each party put forward a list of candidates in priority order so those at the top of the list stood a better chance of becoming MEPs than those at the bottom.