WORCESTER'S Conservatives are celebrating after beating Labour in the city's Euro election poll - despite coming behind UKIP.

In common with the rest of the country, UKIP finished top of the pile in the Faithful City with 7,715 votes.

But the Tories - who were eagerly eyeing up how they compared with Labour ahead of next year's general election - came second on 7,185 and Labour third with 6,651.

Worcester's poll results were also good for the Greens, which came fourth on 2,224, with the Lib Dems fifth on 1,327.

Worcester MP Robin Walker said UKIP coming top was a "protest vote" and insisted he was pleased to beat Labour.

"As expected, the Euro results reflect a significant protest vote but it's good to see two Conservative MEPs for the West Midlands and being 530 (votes) ahead of Labour in Worcester," he said.

Councillor Joy Squires, Labour's Worcester parliamentary candidate, said the Tories made "no ground at all" compared to its support in the last Euro elections.

"Clearly UKIP has had a big impact across all political parties," she said.

"I am confident that Labour is moving in the right direction locally as recent polls have suggested."

The Green Party narrowly missed out in the seventh seat up for grabs in the region after polling robustly.

Will Duckworth said the party had "prioritised our campaign" in areas like Worcester and it was pleased with the response.

"We ran a very positive campaign, and people responded to that," he said.

"The Green Party didn’t subscribe to this race to the bottom of anti-immigration rhetoric."

UKIP also topped the polling in Wychavon and the Wyre Forest, but in Malvern the Tories bucked the trend by coming first with 7,508 votes, beating Nigel Farage's party by around 560.

Across the West Midlands, UKIP topped the poll with 428,010 votes, and Labour came second on 363,033.

The Tories were third with 330,470, Lib Dems fourth on 75,648 and the Green Party fifth polling 71,464.

Turnout across the region was 43 per cent, but in Worcester it was 33 per cent.