On 10th April 2019, Theresa May met with the other members of the European Council. Together, they negotiated an extension to Article 50 that would last until 31st October. If the United Kingdom did not leave before May 23rd, it was to hold elections to the European Parliament, or else it would be forced to face the consequences.

What I personally consider to be the beginning of the campaign came two days later, with the launch of the Brexit Party. Nigel Farage himself opened the announcement ceremony, pledging to his audience that there would be ‘no more Mr. Nice Guy’. He unveiled a list of no more than seventy candidates, including former Conservative Party MPs and former Conservative hopefuls like Anne Widdecombe and Annunziata Rees-Mogg; former Revolutionary Communist Party members that deny the existence of the Bosnian genocide and praise the bombing of Warrington by the IRA, like Claire Fox. They established a broad church, with Nigel Farage as its face and cult of personality that bussed the UKIP vote.

The remain equivalent of the Brexit Party, Change UK, launched eleven days later. Now led by Conservative Party turncoat and MP Heidi Allen, they called themselves ‘the remain party’ and also unveiled a list of seventy candidates: Rachel Johnson (Boris Johnson’s sister), Jacek Rostowski (the former Deputy Prime Minister of Poland), and Gavin Esler (a former BBC presenter). Within forty-eight hours, they were down two candidates and ten days ago from the time of writing, their top candidate for Scotland dropped out and endorsed the Liberal Democrats. Tonight, the so-called ‘Remain Party’ won precisely zero seats.

The Liberal Democrats embarked on their campaign with a strong pro-Remain message. They attacked Labour and the Conservative Party as ‘Brexit parties’, in the same way the Brexit Party was calling the two ‘remain parties’. They even sniped at Change UK from the sidelines. The party we saw in this European elections campaign was one that was energised, unified in its message, and unfazed by its electoral defeats in the past. With a name that has been dragged through the mud, we first saw this message work in the local elections: the Liberal Democrats were the big winners on 2nd May, while Labour and the Conservatives haemorrhaged voters.

The Green Party have not done so bad either. They entered this election season while headlines regarding climate change and climate change protests dominated the news. With their flagship policies similar to the Labour Party’s, a strong remain message, and a manifesto that engaged with Europe, they became the remain party for people that are too left wing or unwilling to vote for the Liberal Democrats. Alongside the Liberal Democrats, they had a strong showing in the local elections on the 2nd May.

In England and Wales, the Conservative Party has bled nineteen seats, leaving them with a pitiful three seats. The Labour Party, with their message of ‘come together’ and their pro-remain MEPs diluting their campaign were the second biggest losers, losing ten seats. The third biggest losers were Change UK: three MEPs defected to them earlier this year but tonight, Change UK were merely a thorn in the side of the Lib Dems, and lost all of their seats.

The Green Party grabbed themselves two new seats in the North West and Yorkshire and The Humber, getting their top-list candidates Gina Dowding and Magid Magid elected in those regions respectively. They are now the fourth largest British party in the European Parliament with seven seats, and have joined their mainland counterparts in having a good night. The Liberal Democrats are now the second largest British party in the European Parliament, ahead of Labour, having won fourteen seats after being reduced to just one in 2014. The Brexit Party performed slightly better than expected, with twenty-eight seats, a gain of four on UKIP’s 2014 result.

Both sides are claiming victory.

Both sides are wrong to do so.

The remain side has a very marked increased in seats. Combined with the Labour Party MEPs who are pro-remain, the remainers have thirty-three seats, a gain of six. The leave side now have thirty-one seats, a loss of five.

A two seat disparity is not enough to claim victory. The campaign was bitter and toxic and even on a low turnout with both sides energised, movement was minimal. It just shows that the country is just as divided, but even more entrenched, as it was three years ago.