Brown on brink after Labour routed
Gordon Brown's political survival is hanging in the balance as Labour suffered a devastating rout in the European elections.
The party was beaten into third place by the UK Independence Party (Ukip) in the popular vote while the far right British National Party achieved a major breakthrough gaining their first Euro seats.
The scale of the defeat could be the catalyst for rebel Labour backbenchers manoeuvring to oust Mr Brown to come out into the open and launch a direct leadership challenge.
With the all the results in for England and Wales, Labour were on course to gain just 16% of the vote - a point behind Ukip on 17% and 11 points behind the Tories on 27%, according to a BBC projection.
Labour lost five seats to leave them with just 11, two fewer than Ukip with 13 and 13 behind the Conservative tally of 24.
Deputy leader Harriet Harman admitted that they had been a "very dismal" set of results for the party.
She sought to deflect attention from the Prime Minister, putting the blame for Labour's poor performance on the row over MPs' expenses which, she said, had hit the party particularly hard. "Our supporters are absolutely furious with us about expenses," she said. "They expect us to have higher standards than the Tories."
However, Labour MPs returning to Westminster will be weighing up whether they now need to ditch Mr Brown if they are going to stand any chance at the next general election.
The results will set the scene for a tense meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party where the Prime Minister is expected to address his shell-shocked backbenchers.
The former Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer - the most senior figure so far to break cover - repeated his call for a new leader to re-unify the party. "I think unity will only come with a leader that the mainstream votes for," he said.
