Westminstenders: One Pepperoni Pizza Please. And a Milkshake To Go.

[RedToothBrush]

On the Eve of the EU Elections that we never met to happen, and we don't know what the next hour next mind day might bring.

Farage is enjoying the theatre of milkshakes. It means he gets attention and gets to play the victim. And avoid talking about his dodgy friends and even dodgier financing. The Brexit Party are polling so highly its possible he could be PM. And boy does he know it. The temptation is there and its too much to resist.

May has refused to resign so far tonight after a day of asking her to. The 1922 Committee refused to change the rules to help oust her - possibly because they don't want the next PM to be beset with challenges to the leadership at the drop of a hat. Graham Brady is seeing her on Friday... The ERG are not happy bunnies.

May is still apparently planning to plough on with the WAB with a referendum possibly attached. Though this remains to be seen.

Meanwhile Leadsom has just quit the Cabinet. She was one of the Brexit 'Pizza Club'. Rumours are this might be the Cabinet withdrawing support for her. Though Gove has said he doesn't intend to resign (tonight at least).

Rumour is that May's senior staff have abandoned her to let her make the decision to go. And rumours are that when Leadsom rang May to tell her she was leaving cabinet, May didn't tell her senior staff. This comes two weeks after rumours where that Phillip May was at the point of telling her it was time to resign. The rumours of course may be just that, rumours but it's hard to see how or why anyone would tell her to carry on now.

And so tomorrow. Who would vote for this utter shower of shit? Even if you were the most loyal of Tories?

The thing tomorrow is to get the remain vote out. It doesn't matter ultimately what people vote for. Every vote cast for remain keeps the Brexit Party popular vote down. Even if it doesn't win seats. And that is psychologically important.

Tomorrow make sure EVERYONE you know who is anti brexit party votes. More so if they are a Remainer voting for a Remain party, but also if they are solid Labour or the rarest of things, a true blue.

It MATTERS. Narratives will be set.

If you are not sure if you are registered to vote, please TRY ANYWAY. The worst case is you are turned away and have lost 20 mins of your life. But you might also be able to vote and that might change the course of events.

Talk to people tomorrow. Remind them. Make sure it's about preventing a hard right foothold. Apathy will destroy our futures. Being fed up of politicians so refusing to vote is actively shooting yourself in the face.

Who am I voting for?

Still no idea. But I will vote.

Well done Stripey it all counts.

At what point do international election observers get called in?

At a guess, they wouldn't be allowed to operate in the UK. Or rather their findings would be dismissed by the government.

Sadly, there comes a time, when governments need to be reminded they govern by consent.

What was the phrase ... pour encourager les autres ?

Polling station said its been a bit quiet today

Weird I would have thought it would be busier. Maybe the vast majority don’t really give a shit either way?

So impressed with your persistence L1minal

Polling station was very quiet here. I was the only person there - no sign of anyone else. However, it’s a small village and this was before most people have finished work. Local elections saw a large increase in seats for LD so I expect the Remain vote is strong here.

It was deserted when I voted.

Just looked at twitter for an indication of turnout

There's a few places reporting in the region of 25% turnout as of 5pm. And saying that turnout is lower than the local elections.

A lot of people go after work so plenty of time yet - people more likely to be of working age.

Remembering that many, particularly Conservatives, didn't turn out for the locals as it was that's interesting.

Low turnouts favour odd things happening. Results might have some shocks in then.

My polling station is in a tiny West Mids village so I am usually voting on my own. In the local elections I was the only boxed filled in on the sheet they fill out with your number at about 6pm in the evening turn out in my ward was really low less than 1000. Today whole sheet was full by 10.30 am. Not sure if it’s a good or bad thing it’s Brexit central round here. Two remain votes here one Green one Lib Dem third remain vote will happen when daughter comes back from work. None of us voted in 2014. Just hope it helps one poll I saw for West Mids had Brexit Party on 40%.

Well, DD1 and I were both on the list even though no polling card. I wonder how many EU nationals in our patch didn't bother because they didn't get a polling card, though. We don't have a lot of the forrin here, hence it being heavily pro-Brexit, but it doesn't help.

Just put my X in the box for Molly Scott Cato. I'm another one who panics that I've done it wrong! I was the only one in there, smallish town in the SW, small Leave majority and a useless Tory MP.

EU citizens are complaining to EU officials via their Facebook pages. It seems that it's not just the paperwork not being done, some are saying that theirs was done and they had their voting cards to prove it, but were still turned away.

Jennifer Rankin @jennifermerode
Why are there no exit polls for #EUelections2019 🗳️ in the UK?
UK law prohibits them (l), but EU law only bans publishing results before the end of voting (r).
For Brussels, it's classic goldplating - national gov making rules stricter than needed.

At least 11 EU member states do publish exit polls, including the Dutch - at 2100 tonight.

Thanks, ThereWill

It was very, very quiet in there, though. I was there for longer than usual and I don't think more than 3 or 4 other people came in during that time. Unfortunately I wouldn't expect a great turn-out for European elections in our area anyway.

I've just been and voted Lib Dem. It was quite busy! No idea if that's a good or bad thing.

Simon Cox @ simonfrcox
^EU citizens denied a right to vote because your Euro Parliament form hasn't been processed -ask for the register to be corrected TODAY so you can vote.
Returning officers can correct the register of voters down to 9 pm tonight!^

Deadline is 9 pm on polling day for clerical error corrections to the register- see @ElectoralCommUK advice here:
t.co/AD9lYcQJRu

The register includes whether an EU citizen has made the separate request to register to vote in the Euro Parl elections

Electoral commission advice to polling station staff is clear - if the form has been received, then the register should be corrected by 9 pm and the voter allowed to vote by 10 pm

Lisa O'carroll @lisaocarroll
The Electoral Commission has confirmed this is true - if you have proof the form was received, the electoral register can be changed by 9pm tonight. #deniedmyvote

My station just had me, my husband and a girl there. I asked about turnout and the woman said very low but had picked up after 5pm.

Hmmm

Very interested to see the results and voter turn out numbers.

Crossing everything...

Peregrina

Haha. I voted today. When I wrote that it was at 2:00 am when I was awake to feed my baby. Greens for me.

Just back from voting in our strongly remain voting village. Very happy to report that there were loads of people down at the polling station. Really buzzing.

Out side polling Station. Traffic Chaos.

(solid remainia here)

Dd and I just back from voting. Quite busy, a small queue. I suppose it's peak time. Polling Station just down road from tube station so commuter hour. Didn't spot my MP who's local polling station it is. Would have been amusing to see his face. (Tory remainer).

Dd and I voted Change UK for what it's worth. 2/3 remain sites said to do so.

Why does the UK still have such restrictive voting times? Our election day is Sunday for voting at the polling station but we've been able to 'pre vote' at the libraries or council offices for 2 weeks.

Because we closed all our libraries? And the voter registration incompetence (putting it mildly) on display today explains we don't trust council offices to take care of important documents.

So the three people I asked today all said they werent voting. Didn't seem a big deal and they were confused who to vote for.
I think remainer will be more likely to stayed home and leavers will be out in force.

My polling station in Glasgow was doing very brisk business when I was there half an hour ago. Much busier than you'd normally see for EP elections. Unsurprising I suppose. I waa humming and hawing over which Remain party to vote for and went for Lib Dem in the end as per the tactical advice from Remain Voter.

Alberto Nardelli @AlbertoNardelli
Turnout in the Netherlands at 13:30 was around 14%, slightly lower than in 2014 (15%). Final turnout five years ago was 37%.

Turnout in the Netherlands at 5.30pm was 24%, the same as in 2014

Turnout at 19.30 in the Netherlands was 34%, up compared to 2014 at the same time (32%)