European elections - How Solihull voted

ALMOST a third of Solihull voters backed UKIP in the European elections.

MEPs are elected to represent the entire West Midlands region, but a breakdown of votes by local authority shows how the parties performed when only the votes from the borough are taken into account.

UKIP topped the poll, with 17,590, closely followed by the Conservatives (16,823).

This was a reversal of the result five years ago, when the Tories were the largest party both in Solihull and the West Midlands as a whole.

Labour finished in third place (7231), improving on their performance in 2009, when they trailed the BNP in the borough.

In worrying news for the Lib Dems, the party received less than one in ten of the votes cast. In total they polled 4,863.

Interestingly, despite their strong showing in the local elections held on the same day, the Greens only finished fifth in the European vote (receiving 3734).

When votes from across the West Midlands are pooled together, the seven MEP seats in the region were shared out as follows:

UKIP – 3 seats

Lab – 2 seats

Con – 2 seats