MEP Kilroy-Silk fourth in Erewash

Mr Kilroy-Silk lost his bid to win the Erewash seat

Veritas leader Robert Kilroy-Silk failed in his bid to win a seat, slipping to fourth place behind the three major parties.

Mr Kilroy-Silk lost to incumbent Labour MP Elizabeth Blackman, who won re-election with a decreased majority.

The East Midlands MEP, who left the UK Independence Party to form Veritas, took nearly 3,000 votes, a 5.85% share.

Conservative David Simmonds was second in Erewash with 15,388 votes and Lib Dem Martin Garnett had 7,073 votes.

Flat tax

Ms Blackman's share of the vote slipped by 4.76% with 22,472 votes.

Mr Kilroy-Silk got more than three times as many votes as the UKIP candidate Geoffrey Kingscott, who took 941 votes, behind the BNP candidate Sadie Graham with 1,319 votes.

Mr Kilroy-Silk said he had never really expected to win the seat, but wanted to offer the public "some honesty" in politics.

"I've been saying no - the signs say we can't win and we never really expected to, but what we wanted was to put down a mark and to actually give people the opportunity.

"I don't think I could ever have actually felt comfortable with myself in the future had I not stood here today and known what the British people want."

His party, which fielded 65 candidates countrywide, promised to introduce a flat tax rate of 22%, to withdraw Britain from the European Union and to clamp down on the number of refugees entering the country.