Summary

  • Brexit Party comes top in 19 out of Wales' 22 council areas

  • Nigel Farage's party wins two seats, with one each for Plaid Cymru and Labour

  • Brexit Party lead candidate Nathan Gill calls the result "a very strong message from Wales"

  • The results could not be revealed until voting was completed across all European Union member states

  1. Goodbyepublished at 02:03 British Summer Time 27 May 2019

    That brings an end to our live coverage of the European election results and reaction in Wales.

    For a full round-up of how the night panned out, see our story here.

    Thanks for joining us.

  2. 'This is urgent'published at 01:50 British Summer Time 27 May 2019

    Welsh Government minister and former MEP Eluned Morgan steps up the pressure for Labour to back another referendum.

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  3. Tory's 'ignorance' jibepublished at 01:44 British Summer Time 27 May 2019

    Monmouth AM's comment on the Wales result, which saw the Conservatives come fifth with 6.5% of the vote.

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  4. 'No leadership' in Labourpublished at 01:28 British Summer Time 27 May 2019

    Strong words from the Blaenau Gwent AM, who at one point offered himself as a candidate for first minister.

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  5. Next stop, Brusselspublished at 01:17 British Summer Time 27 May 2019

    The votes have been counted and Wales' MEPs have been chosen.

    But just who are the four people set to take their seats at the European Parliament?

    Here's our handy guide with potted biogs of the winners.

    Wales MEPs on stage in HaverfordwestImage source, Getty Images
  6. Labour has to 'step up the game'published at 01:02 British Summer Time 27 May 2019

    Newly-elected Welsh Labour MEP Jackie Jones says: "We’ve got a Tory leader coming in, a new one who will probably be for a no-deal Brexit, much more hardline than Theresa May was.

    "So we really need to step up the game to try and deal with that scenario.

    "No-deal would be an absolute disaster for Wales."

    Jackie JonesImage source, Getty Images
  7. Who won - Remain or Leave?published at 00:47 British Summer Time 27 May 2019

    Felicity Evans
    BBC Wales political editor

    Politicians on different sides of the Brexit divide are claiming these elections tell us what Wales thinks about Brexit.

    Guess what? Whether they’re leavers or remainers, they think tonight’s results prove “the people of Wales” agree with them.

    So what do the figures tell us? The clearly Remain parties did beat the clearly Brexit parties, by a small margin, but it is really hard to draw a conclusion given that turnout was so low.

    At 37%, it was up more than 5% on last time. Even so, that means fewer than two in five of us actually expressed an opinion.

    There may be lots of reasons for that: Brexit fatigue, a tradition of low turnout at European Parliament elections, a failure to realise they were taking place.

    But whatever the reason, it’s clear the silent majority has remained silent. And it’s always dodgy to claim to know the thoughts of people who choose not to share them.

    Of those who did vote - and this is a very small sample of the electorate - they are split almost down the middle.

    By my maths, the pro-Brexit parties (whom I have counted as the Brexit Party, the Conservatives and UKIP) got a total of 353,557.

    The Remain parties (I’m counting Plaid Cymru, the Liberal Democrats, Change UK and the Greens) got 354,805.

    Why am I not including Labour in these sums? Because of the party’s ambivalence - the party supported a referendum only in the event of a “bad Brexit” and no general election.

    Brexit is binary - one thing or the other.

  8. Lib Dem 'fightback in full effect'published at 00:24 British Summer Time 27 May 2019

    The Liberal Democrats came fourth in Wales but missed out on winning a seat as the Brexit Party picked up two.

    But Welsh leader Jane Dodds says the result "shows the Welsh Liberal Democrat fightback is in full effect".

    "Voters are listening to us again, supporting us again and believing in us again," she adds.

    "These results show we’re on course to return a strong and effective Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Group in 2021.”

    Jane Dodds
  9. Remain majority?published at 00:18 British Summer Time 27 May 2019

    Cardiff University political expert excludes Labour and the Conservatives from his calculations.

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  10. 'Historic occasion'published at 00:10 British Summer Time 27 May 2019

    Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price was delighted his party had beaten Labour in a national election in Wales for the first time in Plaid's 94-year history.

    He told the BBC's election programme it was "truly an historic occasion", with voters "breaking the habit of Labour party domination".

    Mr Price also claimed Wales was "now again a Remain nation", if the total votes of pro-Brexit and anti-Brexit parties were compared.

    He called for another referendum, a "final say" for the people, warning "trust in democracy is going to collapse" otherwise.

    Adam Price
  11. Prevarication 'cost us dearly'published at 00:01 British Summer Time 27 May 2019

    Pontypridd MP Owen Smith - who challenged Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership in 2016 - says the party should have campaigned "unambiguously" in favour of Remain.

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  12. 'Dreadful for Drakeford'published at 23:51 British Summer Time 26 May 2019

    BBC Wales correspondent says it's a bad night for Labour and its relatively-new first minister.

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  13. 'Wales wants a final say'published at 23:46 British Summer Time 26 May 2019

    Gower's Labour MP rejects claims the result in Wales is a vote in favour of Brexit.

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  14. 'Extremely disappointing'published at 23:44 British Summer Time 26 May 2019

    The leader of the Conservatives in the Welsh Assembly reflects on his party coming fifth in Wales with 6.5% of the vote.

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  15. An 'extraordinarily bad night' for Welsh Labourpublished at 23:37 British Summer Time 26 May 2019

    Felicity Evans
    BBC Wales political editor

    This is an extraordinarily bad night for Welsh Labour, a party that has topped every Wales-wide poll (except one) for a century.

    They may be the victims of a UK-wide issue and the ambivalence of Jeremy Corbyn’s position on another referendum.

    But the Welsh party has defied the UK trend many times before. And for their new leader, Mark Drakeford, presiding over a result like this is damaging.

    Sources say the party in Wales had no control over the conduct of the campaign or party policy on Brexit.

    But Mr Drakeford is the most senior elected Labour figure in the UK.

    If “Welsh Labour” is anything other than an exercise in branding, its leadership must surely be able to exercise influence within the party centrally - even over non-devolved issues that profoundly affect Wales.

    Did Mr Drakeford try to do that behind the scenes? We don’t know.

    What we do know is that Mr Drakeford has, for months, resisted pressure from within his own Welsh party to come out more strongly for another referendum.

    It was loyal to the UK party position, but was it the right call?

  16. Brexit Party celebratespublished at 23:32 British Summer Time 26 May 2019

    Just before the official declaration of the Wales result, the party was confident that Nathan Gill (right) and James Wells (left) would be joining Nigel Farage in the European Parliament.

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  17. Wales results - officialpublished at 23:31 British Summer Time 26 May 2019

    As we predicted, the results as officially announced were:

    Brexit Party - 271,404 - 32.5% - Two MEPs - Nathan Gill and James Wells

    Plaid Cymru - 163,928 - 19.6% - One MEP - Jill Evans

    Labour - 127,833 - 15.3% - One MEP - Jackie Jones

    Lib Dems - 113,885 - 13.6%

    Conservatives - 54,587 - 6.5%

    Greens - 52,660 - 6.3%

    UKIP - 27,566 - 3.3%

    Change UK - 24,332 - 2.9%

    (Rejected ballot papers - 5,655)

  18. WALES RESULT: BREXIT 2, PLAID CYMRU 1, LABOUR 1published at 23:27 British Summer Time 26 May 2019

  19. 'Time for a rethink'published at 23:19 British Summer Time 26 May 2019

    A former Welsh Labour MEP congratulates her party's lead candidate after a "difficult" campaign.

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  20. Wales result - by our calculationpublished at 23:17 British Summer Time 26 May 2019

    As we wait for the official declaration, here is our estimation of the results for Wales in percentage terms:

    Brexit Party - 32.5% - two seats

    Plaid Cymru - 19.6% - one seat

    Labour - 15.3% - one seat

    Lib Dems - 13.6%

    Conservatives - 6.5%

    Greens - 6.3%

    UKIP - 3.3%

    Change UK - 2.9%