New MEP Martin Daubney: Brexit Party has brought hope for millions
New MEP Martin Daubney has said the Brexit Party's landslide victory has provided hope for millions of voters who were 'close to political extinction'.
Mr Daubney was one of three MEPs, alongside Rupert Lowe and Andrew Kerr, to win a seat for the recently-formed Brexit Party in the West Midlands.
The Brexit Party won 37.7 per cent of the total West Midlands vote and amassed more than 500,000 votes at the ballot box.
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Nationally, it won 32 per cent of the vote with more than 5,000,000 individual votes.
The party's rapid rise to power comes after uncertainty around Brexit which has divided the country since the EU referendum vote on June 23, 2016.
Mr Daubney told the Express & Star: "I feel elated, privileged, amazed, but not surprised. We have been out on the streets for the last month fighting for every single vote.
"We found about a third of people that we stopped had already voted, so there is huge engagement, really switched on people, who have defied this lie that leavers didn't know what they had voted for, and still don't, or they are thick and misinformed.
"The voters have been reinvigorated with a fresh sense of hope because there is so many people we spoke to, particularly Conservatives, had almost given up on politics altogether.
"I mean they were literally saying 'I am not voting ever again', 'what is the point', 'they don't listen', 'I'm done with it all'.
"So talking those people almost back from political extinction into being part of an optimistic movement filled with hope has given them the opportunity to see that someone will actually listen to them, the 17.4 million forgotten voters.
"Over half a million West Midlanders voted for this party tonight which is a massive majority - 37.7 per cent I think - which has smashed our expectations.
"We are on cloud nine, we have got three MEPs going to Brussels to fight for the West Midlanders and we are over the moon."
The Brexit Party's huge gains has meant overnight the party, lead by Nigel Farage, has become the joint-biggest party in the EU Parliament with 29 seats, alongside the German centre-right Christian Democratic Union party.
In the West Midlands, the first MEP to get elected on Sunday night was Rupert Lowe.
He got on stage at Birmingham's International Convention Centre to a song from fellow Brexit party members with the words 'bye, bye EU'.
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Mr Lowe said afterwards: "This is history in the making as we stand here. It is an incredible result. To see a party that was set-up less than two months ago win the share of the vote, and turn people from across the country into MEPs, I think it is indicative of how disaffected many of our voters feel and how out of touch they feel Westminster has become with what they want."
Andrew Kerr, who took the Brexit Party's third seat after Mr Daubney, added: "I think this is a great opportunity because whatever happens - and we are likely to leave the EU - I honestly believe this is a great opportunity for us to really build up our industry, build up the jobs; an opportunity we haven't had for a generation or so."
The original date to leave the European Union was March 29 but Prime Minister Theresa May has failed to get her deal through parliament, meaning the new leaving date has been pushed back to October 31.
Nigel Farage has warned that if the country does not leave the EU by that date, there will be another landslide victory for the Brexit Party at the next general election.
Labour and the Conservatives both lost a seat in the West Midlands, gaining only one each. The Liberal Democrats and the Green Party, which are both remain parties, gained one seat each having none before the election.
Returning Lib Dem MEP Phil Bennion said: "The people have voted on a clear mandate - that a vote for the Lib Dems is a vote to Stop Brexit, and work with our European colleagues to tackle the big challenges of our time."
The Green party had its first ever elected West Midlands MEP, which was Dr Ellie Chowns. She said: "The public heard our message saying ‘yes to Europe, and no to climate breakdown’ and huge numbers flocked to support us.”
