European elections 2019: Polls close as parties await their fate with Tories braced for damaging blow

Prime Minster Theresa May and her husband Phillip leave a polling station after casting their vote during the European elections
EPA
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Polls have closed in European elections as parties await their fate with the Tories bracing for a damaging blow.

Nigel Farage issued a warning to Westminster's politicians that his Brexit Party would be coming for their jobs ahead of his expected success.

Results of the European contests will not start being announced until Sunday night but opinion polls suggest Mr Farage's party is on course for victory in the elections, which are only taking place because of the delay to Brexit.

Meanwhile the election watchdog said it was aware of reports that EU citizens had been unable to vote in the UK and blamed the late notice from Theresa May's Government that the poll would be going ahead.

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage tells politicians: we're coming for your jobs 
PA

Results will be announced after 10pm on Sunday, when the final polls have closed across Europe.

Both Mrs May and Jeremy Corbyn are braced for a backlash from voters, with Mr Farage's party and the Liberal Democrats expected to pick up votes.

Seventy-three MEPs will be elected to represent the UK, with England, Scotland and Wales using a form of proportional representation called the D'Hondt system and Northern Ireland using the single transferable vote method.

Jeremy Corbyn arrives to cast his vote in the European elections
Getty Images

Mr Farage, who is standing in the South East constituency, said: "If you want Brexit, you've got to vote Brexit.

"We did it once, they ignored us, so we're going to tell them again.

"This time they will realise it isn't just the votes we get today, it's what we might get at a general election that would cost them all their jobs.

"So they better listen to what people have to say today or they'll all be unemployed."

In a polling day video message, Mr Corbyn warned that "the far right is on the rise" and Britain was "at a crossroads".

Theresa May arrives to cast her vote alongside her husband
AP

"The actions we take now will have huge consequences for our future," he said.

On a campaign visit to Worthing, he added: "This Government can't last very long.

"And so, get ready for a general election."

Farage smiles as he poses for photographs outside a polling station
REUTERS

Mrs May smiled as she arrived to cast her ballot alongside husband Philip in her Maidenhead constituency, but she knows the Tories are in for a difficult set of results after a distinctly lacklustre campaign.

The European elections took place almost three years after the UK voted to leave the EU because of Mrs May's failure to get her Brexit deal through Parliament.

The late confirmation on May 7 that voters would go to the polls was highlighted by the Electoral Commission as a factor in the difficulties faced by some EU citizens in casting their ballots

An Electoral Commission spokesman said: "We understand the frustration of some citizens of other EU member states, resident in the UK, who have been finding they are unable to vote today when they wish to do so.

"All eligible EU citizens have the right to vote in the EU elections in their home member state.

"If an EU citizen instead chooses to vote in the EU election in the UK, there is a process for them to complete to essentially transfer their right to vote, from their home member state to the UK.

"This is a requirement of EU law, which specifies that this has to be done 'sufficiently in advance of polling day'. UK law sets this as 12 working days in advance of the poll."

The spokesman added: "The very short notice from the Government of the UK's participation in these elections impacted on the time available for awareness of this process amongst citizens, and for citizens to complete the process."

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