UKIP’S electoral success continued in south Essex as the party romped to victory in the European elections.

The eurosceptic party took almost one in two of all votes cast in Castle Point, Thurrock and Basildon.

The Conservatives trailed them in second place in Rochford, Southend, Basildon and Castle Point while Labour finished second in Thurrock.

In Thurrock, the Ukip vote was more than double that achieved by the Conservatives.

A disastrous performance for the Lib Dems saw them come fifth behind the Green Party in Southend, Basildon and Rochford, while they came sixth in Thurrock and Castle Point.

Votes from Essex were added together with those from Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Bedfordshire, to make up the East of England region.

A mathematical formula is then used to work out howmany members of the European Parliament are elected from across the whole area, based on a proportion of all votes cast.

The region returned three Ukip, three Conservative and one Labour member. One of the newly-elected MEPs is Ukip’s TimAker, who lives in Aveley.

He said: “To come top in one of the toughest regions and to clean sweep some tough areas, like Chelmsford and Bedfordshire Central, shows people didn’t fall for the media spin – if you want proper border c o n t r o l s , you have to leave the EU.

“ T h e other parties looked glum at the count on S u n d a y night – they’ve felt the tremors.”

Ukip’s vote was up 15 per cent from 2009 across the region, the Tories down three per cent and Labour’s up 17 per cent.

Labour MEP Richard Howitt said: “Labour has made solid progress. We got a 50 per cent increase in our vote across the region and nationally finished above the Conservatives.

“I think it is really important Labour listens to the concerns of people, particularly in south Essex who did choose Ukip because of concerns about jobs, wage levels and job security.

“I believe that when it comes to the general election next year, we won’t see as many people voting for Ukip because theywill be voting for a government rather than a party that has no pretensions to be in power.”

Castle Point Conservative MP Rebecca Harris said: “I’m really pleased we got three MEPs back in. It’s really important, we need them there to stand up for British interests in Brussels.

“A lot of people voted to vent their frustrations and I share those on Europe.

“However, there were a lot of people who got David Cameron’s message on Europe and understood we offer an in-out referendum.”

HOW YOU VOTED ACROSS THE DISTRICTS

SOUTHEND

UK Independence Party 15,967
Conservative Party 11,523
Labour Party 6,711
Green Party 3,387
Liberal Democrats 2,645
An Independence from Europe 1,073
English Democrats 704
British National Party 457
Christian People’s Alliance 375
NO2EU 191

ROCHFORD

UK Independence Party 10,324
Conservative Party 7,021
Labour Party 2,514
Green Party 1,575
Liberal Democrats 811
English Democrats Party 541
An Independence from Europe 530
British National Party 194
Christian People’s Alliance 190
NO2EU 64

BASILDON

UK Independence Party 18,926
Conservative Party 10,202
Labour Party 7,301
Green Party 2,032
Liberal Democrats 1,233
An Independence from Europe 877
English Democrats 628
British National Party 564
Christian People’s Alliance 320
NO2EU 147

CASTLE POINT

Ukip 11,391
Conservative 6,159
Labour 2,994
Green 1,151
An Independence From Europe 743
Liberal Democrats 439
BNP 346
Christian People’s Alliance 156
NO2EU 61

THURROCK

UK Independence Party 17,416
Labour Party 8,645
Conservative Party 7,387
Green Party 1,293
An Independence from Europe 938
Liberal Democrat 637
British National Party 623
English Democrats 572
Christian People’s Alliance 294
NO2EU 146

EAST OF ENGLAND

UK Independence Party 542,812
Conservative 446,569
Labour 271,601
Green 133,331
Liberal Democrat 108,010
An Independence From Europe 26,564
English Democrats 16,497
British National Party 12,465
Christian Peoples Alliance 11,627
NO2EU 4,870