Nick Griffin says UKIP policies are 'racist' and voters will come back to BNP

Nigel Farage today announced UKIP would go after Ed Miliband in his Doncaster seat as part of a campaign to win a 'good number' of MPs in 2015.



The UKIP leader told critics who think his party has peaked with last night's victory in the European elections 'you ain't seen nothing yet', as he announced plans to launch new party policy in the Labour leader's backyard.

With 11 regions declared, UKIP has won more than 27 per cent of the vote, electing 24 MEPs, leaving Labour and the Tories to battle it out for second for the first time in 100 years.



In a speech to a victory rally in central London, Mr Farage said the party would now focus on trying to win next week's Newark by-election before attempting to secure enough MPs in Westminster to hold the balance of power in a hung parliament.

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UKIP leader Nigel Farage used a speech to a victory rally in London to announce plans to take on Ed Miliband in his Doncaster backyard

Soon after announcing there is no limit to his political ambitions, Mr Farage was back in a pub with a pint of beer in his hand

Mr Farage sinks a pint outside the Westminster Arms, just a short walk from the Houses of Parliament

With only Northern Ireland left to declare, UKIP has 24 MEPs, up 11 since 2009, including its first MEP in Scotland.



Labour has 20 seats and the Tories 19 seats in Brussels, with Labour narrowly ahead on vote share - 25.4 per cent to 23.93 per cent.



Support for Ukip has surged by more than 12 per cent, outstripping a more modest boost in votes for Labour, while the Lib Dems faced near-wipeout, slipping into fifth place behind the Greens.



Mr Farage said he was 'proud' of the campaign which has seen him humiliate the Westminster parties, pushing Labour and the Tories into second and third.



Speaking at an event in London today, he said: 'If you think you've seen the high watermark of Ukip, you ain't seen nothing yet. Our small party isn't so small anymore.'



He announced that he would launch the new UKIP manifesto in Doncaster, where Mr Miliband is a local MP, in a direct challenge to Labour's cost of living campaign.



In his speech, Mr Farage said: 'We have got to get policy right... I do feel that the manifesto as it was in 2010, 486 pages of it, was perhaps not the right way to approach politics.



'We have already been doing substantial work on the NHS, on defence, on education, on public spending and other areas, and we will unveil our outline manifesto for the next general election, and we will do it in a town called Doncaster.



'It is a town in which Ed Miliband is the MP, it's a town in which yesterday we topped the polls, and we will have an honest conversation with the British public about the cost-of-living crisis and about how we can make life better and more affordable for ordinary families in this country. Policy will happen in Doncaster in September.'



Mr Farage, leaving his home in Kent today, hailed his party's victory as the most extraordinary result in British politics for 100 years Mr Farage wore pound sign socks as he set of to central London for a victory rally to celebrate winning more than 27 per cent of the vote

Mr Farage said he was 'over the moon' and predicted that Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg could be forced to quit after losing 11 of his 12 MEPs, despite pitching the Lib Dems as a the 'party of in'.



On a dramatic political night:

The Lib Dems clung on to just one MEP - in the South East - as it faced wipeout elsewhere

Labour only narrowly beat the Tories after failing to make progress in key areas where they must win at the general election

The BNP lost its place in Brussels, as leader Nick Griffin conceded defeat

David Cameron rejected local electoral deals with Ukip at next year’s general election, as he dismissed Mr Farage's image as a 'normal bloke down the pub'

Mr Farage hailed the first election triumph for a minor party in more than 100 years

Across Europe, far-right and Eurosceptic parties swept to victory in many countries

With all the main parties left reeling about how to tackle the rise of UKIP, Mr Blair said action had to be taken to show how Mr Farage offers no solutions to the problems of modern Britain.

Speaking on Swedish television, Mr Blair said: 'Of course we should be worried when a party like UKIP comes first in the European election, it would be foolish not to be. But on the other hand we also have to stand for what is correct and right for the future of Britain in the 21st century.

Former Labour Prime Minister said Britain should be 'worried' about the rise of UKIP

'When the world is changing so fast, to end up having the debate dominated by anti-immigrant feeling and a desire to get Britain out of Europe, these are not solutions for the 21st century. They might be expressions of anger about what is happening in the world but they are not answers to what is happening in the world.

'Of course we have to respond in Europe as a whole on these issues but we have also got to have the courage and the leadership to stand up and take these people on. And in the end it's an ideology and philosophy that has nothing to offer people.'

As Ukip was triumphing in the UK, across the Channel France’s far-right National Front was on course for a massive victory in European elections tonight as the country swung behind its anti-immigration, anti-EU agenda.

UKIP appears to have eaten into the support of all the main parties, although the Tory vote seems to be more resilient in some areas, down only four per cent before London and Scotland were declared.

Mr Farage said: 'Never before in the history of British politics has a party that will be seen to be an insurgent party ever topped the polls in a national election.

'We go on surprising people. I am delighted with the way the campaign has gone. It has been a pretty remarkable journey.

'We have formed the people's army to fight the establishment. I love Europe, it's the European Union I have a problem with.'

Confirmed as an MEP in the South East region, Mr Farage added: 'This is just about the most extraordinary result in British politics in 100 years.'

AFTER EURO TRIUMPH, FARAGE SETS SIGHTS ON NEWARK BY-ELECTION

Nigel Farage today predicted David Cameron could be forced to quit if UKIP wins the Newark by-election next week.

Arriving to address supporters at a victory party, Mr Farage made clear his eyes were on the Newark by-election on June 4, where Conservatives are defending a 16,152 majority. 'The people's army of Ukip are on their way to Newark,' he said. 'We are going to give it our best shot. 'If we were to win Newark, David Cameron would be in even more trouble than Nick Clegg. If we were to overturn this massive majority they have got, it would be a very hot, long summer in the Tory Party.' He also revealed his ambition of securing a 'good number of MPs in Westminster at next year's general election. 'Everyone keeps saying it's the high tide mark for UKIP. I think the party has got real momentum behind it,' Mr Farage told the BBC.

UKIP's victory in the polls is the first time a national election had not been won by either the Tories or Labour party since 1906, and raise doubts about either party’s hopes of securing an overall majority next year.

Labour strategists had been clinging to the hope that their party could yet edge victory, with some polls having narrowed in the closing stages of the campaign.

But the Tories pushed Mr Miliband's party into third before the London result was announced.

No opposition has gone on to win a general election has failed to top the European Parliament polls.



'My dream has become a reality,' Mr Farage told the BBC. 'The British people have stood firm, they have backed Ukip and we have won a national election. I'm over the moon.'

While jubilant UKIP celebrated its stunning victory, the Lib Dems were plunged into fresh turmoil with Mr Clegg clinging to his job.

His high stakes gamble to take on Mr Farage in two head-to-head TV debates has dramatically backfired.

Mr Clegg refused to resign, insisting he had not even considered quitting in the wake of another round o dire election results.

He said the loss of seats was 'gutting' but vowed to 'finish the job' in a rebuff to critics in his party who warn he is now toxic for many voters.



Ahead of the results being announced, Mr Farage spent the day at the cricket, watching the County Championship Division Two match between Kent and Worcestershire at The Nevill Ground in Tonbridge Wells

Mr Farage sits with Janice Atkinson (left) and Diane James (right) before they were all confirmed as MEPs for the South East

UKIP have been celebrating across the country after gaining an extra 10 MEPs from 10 regions Support for Nigel Farage's Ukip has surged by more than 12 per cent, outstripping a more modest boost in votes for Labour, while the Lib Dems faced near-wipeout, with some calling for Nick Clegg to resign UKIP MEP David Coburn (right) pulls a face behind Labour MEP's Catherine Stihler and David Martin at the City Chambers in Edinburgh

Pitching the Lib Dems as the true voice of pro-EU politics in Britain, Mr Clegg saw his MEPs wiped out in almost every region in the country.

The Lib Dems won 11 MEPs in 2009, and gained another through a defection.

But just Catherine Bearder held her seat in the South East, making her the only Lib Dem in Brussels when they previously had 12. Lib Dem grandee Sir Graham Watson also lost his seat in the South West, with the Green party taking his place.

''It has been a pretty awful night for the Liberal Democrats"



Mr Clegg’s position now looks precarious, after around 250 Lib Dems – including candidates and ex-MPs – signed a letter calling for him to resign.

But ahead of tonight’s results the party leadership told its members to prepare to lose most – if not – all of their seats.

In the popular share of the vote the Lib Dems slumped to just 6.87 per cent, barely half what it achieved in 2009.

Lib Dem president Tim Farron said the results were 'as bad as I feared' as it faced losing all of its MEPS.

Treasury minister Danny Alexander added: 'It has been a pretty awful night for the Liberal Democrats.'

Prime Minister David Cameron said the Tories 'absolutely received and understood' the message from voters

Labour leader Ed Miliband and Lib Dem Nick Clegg face new questions about their parties' performance

CAMERON: FARAGE IS A POLITICIAN, NOT JUST A MAN DOWN THE PUB UKIP leader Nigel Farage celebrates last week's local elections with a pint in a pub, but Mr Cameron dismissed him as a consummate politician David Cameron today took aim at triumphant UKIP leader Nigel Farage, dismissing his image as a ‘normal bloke down the pub’. The Prime Minister hit the airwaves after the Tories were pushed into third behind UKIP and Labour, despite his repeated promise to hold an in-out referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU. Mr Cameron said the message from voters had been ‘absolutely received and understood’, but challenged the idea that Mr Farage is anything other than a ‘consummate politician’. 'We have seen that with his expenses and wife on the pay roll and everything else. So I don’t really accept that he’s a normal bloke down the pub thing,' he told BBC Radio 4. Mr Cameron added: ‘People are deeply disillusioned with the European Union, they don’t feel that the current arrangements are working well enough for Britain and they want change. ‘I would say that message as far as I’m concerned is absolutely received and understood. Advertisement

But other Lib Dems said the time has come for Mr Clegg to go.

Martin Tod, a member of the party's federal executive, accused the leadership of complacency in the face of another dire set of results.

'I'm just really concerned that if we stay with Nick and we stay with the current strategy, that we will get the result that this year has told us we will get in next year’s general election,' he told the BBC.

The local and European elections have claimed a high-profile casualty In Ireland.

The leader of the Labour Party, the junior partner in government, announced Monday he is resigning after voters punished his party.

The decision by Eamon Gilmore, who is also foreign minister and deputy prime minister, raises new doubts about whether Ireland's two-party government can survive its full five-year term to 2016.

Gilmore, 59, announced he would quit after seven years in charge rather than face a no-confidence vote among Labour lawmakers.



Gilmore said he intended to remain in Cabinet until Labour elects his replacement July 4.

Labour is in a coalition government with the center-right Fine Gael party.



While MEPs are elected by region, a breakdown of early results from council areas put UKIP top in Eastleigh, South Somerset, Bournemouth, Vale of Glamorgan, Thurrock, Tendring, Mansfield, Rotherham, North West Leicestershire, Basildon and North East Lincolnshire.

Ukip's Roger Helmer said the party had topped the poll in Newark, where he will fight a Westminster by-election next month.

He told Sky News: 'Britain is sending a hugely powerful message to the political classes tonight and I think Newark will relish the opportunity of reinforcing that message on Thursday week.'

A strong showing in the nationwide Euro elections vote will be seen as vindication after weeks of deeply damaging headlines and accusations of racism, sexism and homophobia aimed at UKIP candidates.

However, Mr Farage was forced to reject the idea that UKIP MEPs would site in Brussels with far-right groups like the French National Front.

Exit polls in France put it on an historic 25 per cent of the vote – a full 11 percentage points higher than the ruling Socialists.

Marine Le Pen, the Front National (FN) party leader, heralded a ‘historic victory’ in which ‘the sovereign people of France have spoken loud and clear’.

Early estimates suggested the number of Eurosceptic MEPs in Brussels could double.

In Denmark, the anti-immigration far-right People's Party is on course to win with 23 per cent while in Hungary, the extreme-right Jobbik - accused of racism and anti-Semitism - was running second

Elsewhere, in Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats were expected to secure victory with 36 per cent of the vote.

In Greece, the poll was topped by the radical left anti-austerity Syriza movement, beating the governing New Democracy into second place.

Marine Le Pen, France's National Front political party head, reacts to results after the polls closed in the European Parliament elections at the party's headquarters in Nanterre, near Paris

BNP'S GRIFFIN: VOTERS WILL RETURN WHEN THEY REALISE UKIP IS RACIST BNP leader Nick Griffin conceded defeat BNP leader Nick Griffin has claimed voters will return to his party when they realise that UKIP is racist. In an extraordinary claim after losing his seat in Brussels, the far-right leader rejected claims his party is finished. He told Sky News: 'I've lost count of the number I've spoken to who people say, "We really like the BNP but we are voting UKIP because there is more chance they will stop immigration and send them all home".

'As there is not a hope in hell of that, people are going to be very disappointed when they find out what Ukip really stands for and that huge vote is going to come back to us.' Asked why voters in the North West rejected the BNP's racist and fascist policies, he said: 'They've voted for Ukip's racist policies instead.'

The BNP won two seats in 2009 but has since been hit by internal strife and conflict, and personal woes for Mr Griffin, who was declared bankrupt in January. The other MEP - Andrew Brons - resigned from the party in 2011. Advertisement

In the UK, immigration dominated much of the campaign, with UKIP arguing proper border controls were not possible while in the EU.

The Tory promise of an in-out referendum, if Mr Cameron is PM in 2017, has failed to prevent the loss of support to UKIP.

Eurosceptic Conservative MPs said the results from across Europe proved their point.

Harwich and Essex MP Bernard Jenkin wrote on Twitter: 'Some of us who opposed Maastricht 20 years ago predicted it would lead to the rise of the right in the EU: and here we are.'

Douglas Carswell, the Clacton MP, said: 'So maybe those of us who sometimes banged on about Europe were on to something?'

Foreign Secretary William Hague said Brussels had to acknowledge the 'deep disillusionment and deep dissatisfaction' of voters across Europe.

He told the BBC he believed that Ukip's support would switch for next year's general election: 'They can have a free hit , they can have a vote that does not have the consequence of bringing the wrong government in.

'So it is very different to a general election.'

In an embarrassment for Labour leader Ed Miliband, Ukip even topped the poll in Doncaster, where he is an MP.

Ukip had 35 per cent of the vote, up 19 points on 2009. Labour were pushed into second on 34 per cent.

After gaining more than 160 council seats in England on Thursday, Mr Farage declared that the ‘UKIP fox is in the Westminster hen house’.

Mr Cameron faced embarrassment on polling day when new figures showed net migration hit 212,000 in 2013, more than double his target of reducing it to the 'tens of thousands'.

Home Secretary Theresa May today insisted it remained a target, but would be 'more difficult' to meet by the general election.

She blamed 'heated' conversations with the Lib Dems in the coalition for failing to make more progress on immigration curbs.

In an attempt to win over disaffected voters who have backed to Ukip Tory ministers are preparing a series of measures to limit EU immigration and ‘benefit tourism’, as well as a fresh push to get a referendum Bill into law.

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond claimed most people who voted UKIP last week were ‘lender voters’ who would switch back to the Tories for the General Election next year.

He told Sky News that the Government needed to address ‘specific concerns about immigration and about Europe’.

In Thursday's local elections UKIP made gains across the country, depriving the Tories, Labour and Lib Dems of seats and overall control of major authorities.

Even before the Euro result was announced, Mr Cameron, Mr Miliband and Mr Clegg have been forced to defend their policies and explain how their plan to tackle UKIP in future.

Meanwhile Mr Cameron has been urged by influential Tory MP David Davis to bring forward his promised EU referendum by a year to 2016 in a bid to persuade defectors to UKIP he is serious.

Chancellor George Osborne said he and David Cameron were ready to 'respond to the anger justifiably felt with answers' to concerns about issues such as immigration and welfare.

Accepting that the latest results were likely to make more uncomfortable reading he conceded that 'too many people who share our values did not feel able to vote for us'.

He dismissed calls from some eurosceptic backbenchers for an electoral pact with UKIP.

Labour won more than 300 extra seats in the local elections, but failed to secure progress in some target areas because of a surge by UKIP.

Mr Miliband will next week visit the scene of one of the party's biggest disappointments, Thurrock, in Essex, number two on its Westminster target list, where it actually lost control of the council.

THE PEASANTS ARE REVOLTING: BORIS JOHNSON TAKES SWIPE AT UKIP VOTERS

Tory mayor Boris Johnson likened the rise of minor parties, including UKIP, to a 'peasants' revolt' Boris Johnson has likened the surge in support for UKIP to a 'peasants revolt'. In an apparent swipe at people wooed by Nigel Farage, the London Mayor said that the 'main parties have all been figuratively slapped in the face with a wet kipper'. But he added that the phenomenon is being repeated across Europe, which has witnessed the rise of smaller parties 'some of them bizarre, some of them downright potty, but all of them united by a visceral dislike of the EU bureaucracy: its arrogance, its remoteness, its expense, its endless condescension and its manic and messianic belief in its right to legislate for all 500 million people in the EU'. Writing in his Telegraph column, Mr Johnson added: 'There is a kind of peasants’ revolt going on, a jacquerie. 'From Dublin to Lublin, from Portugal to Pomerania, the pitchfork-wielding populists are converging on the Breydel building in Brussels – drunk on local hooch and chanting nationalist slogans and preparing to give the federalist machinery a good old kicking with their authentically folkloric clogs.'





Lib Dem bloodbath is 'gutting' but I will NOT resign, says Clegg



Nick Clegg today insisted he had never considered quitting despite leading the Lib Dems into an election bloodbath, losing all but one of the party’s MEPs.

In a near wipeout at the ballot box, the pro-EU Lib Dems lost 11 of its 12 seats in Brussels, after Mr Clegg campaigned hard as the leader of the ‘party of in’.

But in an apparently emotional interview this afternoon, Mr Clegg insisted the ‘gutting’ result had not led him to consider is position, vowing instead to ‘finish the job’.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg refused to resign after the 'gutting' election results saw all but one of the party's MEPs ousted

The Lib Dems slumped to fifth place in the national share of the vote – to just 7 per cent, behind the Greens.

After starting the night with 12 MEPs, the party was reduced to a rump of just one - Catherine Bearder in the South East.

While jubilant UKIP celebrated stunning victory – topping the poll and securing 24 MEPS - the Lib Dems were plunged into fresh turmoil with Mr Clegg clinging to his job.

His high stakes gamble to take on Mr Farage in two head-to-head TV debates appears to have dramatically backfired.

Speaking from Liberal Democrat headquarters in central London, Mr Clegg said: ‘It didn't work but it was right that we stood up for the values we believe in.

‘I'm immensely proud to lead the most united, resilient and toughest party in British politics.'

Mr Clegg went on: ‘We made a big commitment to the British people in 2010 to step up to the plate, to form a government, to reform and repair the damaged British economy and to deliver policy after policy after policy that the Liberal Democrats have been campaigning on for generations. That is what we must continue to do. We must finish the job.’

"f I thought any of our real dilemmas would be addressed by changing leadership... then I wouldn't hesitate advocating it"

Pitching the Lib Dems as the true voice of pro-EU politics in Britain, Mr Clegg saw his MEPs wiped.

Around 250 Lib Dems – including candidates, councillors and MPs – have signed a letter calling for him to resign.

Mr Clegg went on: ‘If I thought any of our real dilemmas would be addressed by changing leadership, changing strategy, changing approaches, bailing out now, changing direction, then I wouldn't hesitate advocating it. Absolutely not.’

Asked if he has a bunker mentality, he replied: ‘No, not at all’, adding: ‘I'm never going to put myself ahead of the Liberal Democrats.’

In the popular share of the vote the Lib Dems slumped to just 6.87 per cent, barely half what it achieved in 2009.

Lib Dem President Tim Farron said it would be 'foolish' to oust Mr Clegg, but some party members want Vince Cable to take charge ahead of the 2015 general election

Lib Dem MP John Pugh has called for Vince Cable to take over as leader to stem the loss of public support

Lib Dem president Tim Farron said the results were 'as bad as I feared' as it faced losing all of its MEPS.

Treasury minister Danny Alexander added: 'It has been a pretty awful night for the Liberal Democrats.'

But former MP Sandra Gidley said the Lib Dem brand had become ‘toxic’.

Lib Dem MP John Pugh said he wanted Business Secretary Vince Cable to take over as leader, warning that a fundamental cause of the Lib Dems' ‘abysmal’ showing was the fact that voters were no longer willing to listen to Mr Clegg.

If we carry on as usual, we are like the generals at the Somme, because these losses are horrendous,’ the Southport MP told the BBC News Channel. ‘Given the scale of the losses, to call for business as usual is frankly ludicrous.’

Mr Clegg rejected the criticism: ‘Of course, it is right to have searching questions in the wake of such a bad set of election results, but if I'm honest the easiest thing in politics, just as in life, sometimes when the going gets really tough is just to walk away, to wash your hands of it. I'm not going to do that and my party is not going to do that.

‘At the point when our big decisions, our big judgments are being vindicated, we are not going to buckle, we are not going to lose our nerve. We are not going to walk away.

‘We must argue over and over and over again that if it wasn't for the Liberal Democrats taking that brave decision at considerable short-term cost...we wouldn't have a recovery now and more than that you wouldn't have the kind of recovery.

‘There's just no way the Conservatives left to their own devices could deliver the big changes.’

Miliband urged to promise in-out referendum to win 2015 election

Ed Miliband plans to return to Thurrock, where Labour lost ground in the local elections

Ed Miliband is facing calls from his own party to promise an EU referendum, as senior Labour figures waned a general election victory is not 'in the bag'.

Labour only narrowly beat the Tories in the European elections, thanks to a strong showing in London.

But across the country the two parties were neck and neck, with critics warning securing 25 per cent of vote share was the worst result for an opposition party at a Euro election.

However, Mr Miliband today remained upbeat, insisting he was making progress in his bid to become Prime Minister next year.

He told the BBC: 'We won the local elections. We beat the Tories in the European elections. These elections show Labour making progress.

'I think we did well for a party that in 2010 got one of its worst shares of the vote ever.'

However, he faced renewed criticism of his leadership style and election strategy from within his own ranks.

Graham Stringer, MP for Blackley and Broughton, said promising an in-out referendum was the 'minimum' response required to the poll in which Labour narrowly beat the Conservatives into third place.

He told the BBC: 'While these elections were about Europe and there was certainly some protest vote, there were also some people voting against the direction this country is going in Europe.

'Unless we have a policy response to that, which has to be as a minimum to give people a referendum, then we are going to lose votes.

'It is a very unattractive policy to say vote for us but we can't do anything about your major concerns because Europe won't let us. So I think we have to improve our offer on Europe. We can't just keep saying this has been a major wake-up call.'

Bassetlaw MP John Mann wrote on Twitter that the Labour party would ignore Ukip at its 'peril', adding: 'Labour drew false comfort before 1992 'just one more push'. It would be foolish to repeat that error.'

The weekend papers will have made for grim reading, reporting members of Mr Miliband’s frontbench team calling their leader ‘damaged goods’, ‘weird’, ‘a problem’ and claiming ‘he has got to go’.

Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna acknowledged that next year's vote was not 'in the bag' for Labour and said the party - which has been accused by some activists of failing to confront the Ukip threat - must now take the debate with Mr Farage's party 'seriously'.

'If we had a general election tomorrow, would it be in the bag? No, of course it wouldn't be in the bag,' Mr Umunna told Today.

'I believe absolutely we can win the next general election, I believe absolutely that this time next year, Ed Miliband can be our prime minister, but we approach these elections with humility.'

Urging Labour to engage in the debate with Ukip, Mr Umunna said: 'This general election will not just be about policies, it will be about values and what you believe in as a country.

'Do we want to be a country that turns in on itself, that blames the other for all of our problems and seeks to set different groups up against each other?

'Or do we want to do what has made Britain great in the past and will make it great in the future, which is to make sure we give everyone a platform to achieve their dreams and aspirations, we hang together, we adhere to the great British values of tolerance and mutual respect for each other?

'We've got to take Ukip seriously as a party and I welcome the chance to scrutinise and debate with them their policies and their values.'

Labour former cabinet minister Frank Field said the election result 'poses big questions for the Labour leadership as a whole' - complaining the party had been 'silent' on immigration.

Mr Field told the Sunday Telegraph: ‘UKIP poses a huge threat to us. We have got quite a lot to do.

‘The danger for Labour is that our supporters have been more affected by immigration than any other group in the country and we have been more silent.

Unless the right policies were found quickly then the Tories could win an overall majority in 2015, he suggested.

‘The greatest challenge UKIP poses is to Labour,' he said.

‘If we are to win next year, it will be UKIP that becomes our main opposition. If we lose, after the country going through the worst recession ever, we could see part of our vote moving over permanently.

‘Our only line back is our policy review. Our review needs to present key policies that give us a new narrative that the centre-left voter wants to hear as opposed to what we want to tell them.

‘If this chance is lost, to realign what Labour stands for, the outlook is grim. We will open up the possibility of a clear Tory win next year. If that can't concentrate our minds, I don't know what will.’

Former Labour minister Frank Field warned the party had to get a grip on its policy review or the outlook would be 'grim'

In a surprise move, Mr Miliband will attempt to confront the party's most prominent failure by returning to the campaign trail next week in a key seat where it lost control of the council.

In a surprise move, Mr Miliband will attempt to confront the party's most prominent failure by returning to the campaign trail next week in a key seat where it lost control of the council.

A surge of support for UKIP in the Essex town of Thurrock - which is second on Labour's 2015 target list - saw it take two Labour and three Tory seats and leave no party in overall control of the authority.

Thurrock had been hailed by Mr Miliband when the party took power there last year as evidence that the Opposition was 'winning back trust, gaining ground'.

Despite winning more than 300 extra seats in the elections, the party failed to make the sort of advance in some key areas seen as vital to securing an overall majority in the Commons next year.

'The local elections show Labour can win because it is our party which is winning where it matters in dozens of our target seats for the next election,' Mr Miliband said.

'From Cambridge to Redbridge, from Crawley to Amber Valley, people are electing Labour councils to meet their desire for change.

'For too long, millions of people have felt locked out of our economy or let down and ignored by politics.