UK Election Results Reflect Europe’s Growing Divide

The result, which horrified the main parties, is an astonishing coup for Farage, and shows that many voters in the UK are no longer interested in "fence-sitting" parties and want explicit options when it comes to the EU.

While Brexit's success shocked the political establishment and has powered up the Euro-sceptic camp generally, almost equally striking  - if less noticed in the media - was the resurgence of the explicitly EU-loving Liberals and Greens, who have both, with good reason, also claimed "victory".

The Liberals scored strikingly well in the Labour bastion of London, coming first even in the north London seat of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and winning just under 21 per cent in all. The Green vote also surged to 12.4 per cent, up from 8 per cent last time.

Once the smaller parties are taken into account, the election result in the UK was almost equally balanced - with the pro-EU vote actually in the lead. The three pro-Brexit parties, Brexit, UKIP and the Conservatives, together took about 45.6 per cent of the vote. But the pro-EU Liberals, Greens, Change UK and Labour [looking at its voters, not its leaders] took about 50 per cent.

Moreover, the remaining votes, coming from pro-EU Scotland, look likely to tilt the balance further in favour of the pro-EU camp, with incomplete results suggesting a landslide for the pro-EU Scottish Nationalists.

The UK result mirrors many recent surveys, showing that the anti-EU vote has slipped back slightly from its 52 per cent high in the in-out referendum - but has also hardened, with most Brexiteers now backing a rapid, "hard", no-deal exit.

The British result also offers an exaggerated version of the result in many other EU countries, which also saw populist far-right and Green...