Labour has been wiped out in the South West in the European elections.

The party lost its only MEP in the region and came fifth overall with fewer votes than the Greens.

The Conservatives won three seats, up one, the UK Independence Party held its two seats and the Liberal Democrats still hold one seat in the region.

Labour's misery in the region came as it suffered its worst post-war election result nationally, beaten into third place by UKIP.

In the South West, the Conservatives took 30.2 per cent of the vote, down 1.3 per cent since the last European elections, and will have three of the six South West seats.

UKIP came second with 22.1 per cent of the vote, down 0.5 per cent, and the Liberal Democrats third with 17.2 per cent, down 1.2 per cent.

The Greens were in fourth with 9.3 per cent, up 2.1 per cent and Labour in fifth with 7.7 per cent, down 6.8 per cent.

Giles Chichester, Julie Girling and Ashley Fox will represent the Conservatives.

Trevor Coleman and William Dartmouth will represent UKIP and Graham Watson continues for the Liberal Democrats.

Labour's Glyn Ford, who has been a Euro MP in the South West since 1999, said the expenses issue was partly to blame for him losing his seat.

"It's obviously disappointing to lose my seat, for myself, for the Labour Party and for the South West," he said.

Mr Chichester also blamed the MPs' expenses issue for a decline in the Conservatives' percentage vote.

He said: "Six weeks to two months ago, I hoped that we would be able to be looking at three or four seats in the region.

"I wanted a really stunning result for the Conservative Party.

"The issue that has overshadowed this election, of MPs' expenses, I think knocked that one on the head."

The turnout was marginally up at 39 per cent compared with 37 per cent at the last elections, which appears to have benefited the smaller parties such as the Pensioners' Party, which was up 2.4 per cent, the BNP which was up 0.9 per cent and Cornish Nationalists Mebyon Kernow which got nearly 15,000 votes.

William Dartmouth, of UKIP, said he was very satisfied with the results.

"Two months ago it seemed that we might lose both our MEPs, but things advanced in the campaign."

In the South West, which stretches from the Isles of Scilly to Gloucestershire and includes Gibraltar, three MEPs are from Devon, one from Bristol, one from Gloucestershire and one from Somerset.