The UK Independence Party made the biggest splash in the European election results last night, taking 17 per cent of the vote in England and Wales and pushing the Liberal Democrats into fourth place.

Boosted by the candidacy of Robert Kilroy-Silk, who was elected as an East Midlands MEP, the protest party also put pressure on the Conservatives, who failed to capitalise on Labour's woes.

But it was a bad night for the government nonetheless, as Tony Blair suffered at the hands of the electorate for the second time in three days.

With the Scottish and Northern Irish results yet to come in, the Tories topped the poll with 27.4 per cent, with Labour on 22.3 points, UKIP on 16.8 and the Lib Dems 15.1.

That gave the Conservatives 25 European parliament seats, Labour 17, UKIP 12 and the Lib Dems 11.

More significantly, Blair and Michael Howard could not command half of the vote between them.

In London former Labour MP George Galloway failed to win a Brussels seat for his new Respect party.

Across the continent, the centre right was the biggest winner although most votes appeared to be protests against sitting governments.

The decision to use all postal voting in four regions and combine the poll with council and London elections helped push turnout up in Britain. But participation was down as a whole in the expanded EU.

And there was concern in the Capital that the joint ballot was too complicated as 500,000 papers were ruled invalid.