UKIP's showing in the Wirral local elections has been described as a “massive leap” forward by the party's Wirral chairman.

The party, who fielded a candidate in each of the 22 wards, came second in nine of them and third in 12 others.

Phil Griffiths, chairman of the party's Wirral branch, said: "That is the best result we have ever had and demonstrates both our activists hard work and the public's desire for a change.

"A growing number of people on the Wirral are fed up with the other three main parties and this is reflected in both the local and European election results.”

UKIP secured three north west MEPs in the European elections as both the Liberal Democrats and BNP were wiped out.

The Euro-sceptic party secured 481,932 votes across the region, up 12% from last time.
Deputy UKIP leader, Paul Nuttall, will now be joined by Louise Bours and Steven Marcus Woolfe.

Mr Griffiths added: “On the Wirral UKIP polled the second highest number of votes in the Euro election with almost 4,000 votes more than the Conservatives and less than 8,000 votes behind Labour.

"We will build on our results and are confident of securing our first Wirral councillors next year and UKIP is on course to win seats in the House of Commons.”

The results for the European polls were announced in the early hours of Monday morning following the count in Manchester on Sunday night.

Labour also took three seats in the region, with the Conservatives in third place with two MEPs.

The biggest shock was that of BNP leader Nick Griffin, who lost his seat in the European Parliament after his party got just 1.8% of the vote.

The Lib Dem vote also collapsed in the region and saw them pushed into fifth place by the Greens, with neither party managing to get enough votes to earn a seat.

The Lib Dems also lost long-standing MEP Chris Davies, who had represented the region since 1999.

Labour received 594,063 votes in the elections, up 13% from 2009. They were just 1% short of securing a fourth MEP.