THE Labour Party's hopes of making gains in next years general and local elections in Brighton and Hove received a massive boost tonight after coming first in the city in the 2014 EU elections.

But the result will come as bitter sweet for the party with Ukip looking likely to win overall in the South East.

With voting taking place across Europe for the past four days the world's media gathered at Southampton's Civic Centre to find out if Ukip's prediction that it would cause a "political earthquake" would actually come true.

But while the party looks set to take the South East it is the city's Labour Party that has been buoyed by the latest result, adding to a solid performance in the local elections when they took back control of Crawley Borough Council and added to their majority in the South East.

With voter turn out up on 2009 at 38% in Brighton and Hove, this result will prove a massive boost for Labour's prospects in 2015.

Annaliese Dodds, a current Labour MEP, said the party had made a good showing across the region: "Overall our results have been good but we're delighted to have topped the poll in Brighton and Hove," she said. "It's fantastic, we've been doing a lot of campaigning in Brighton and Hove and it's clear that our policies in particular areas are striking a chord with people."

The Green Party were also buoyed by their showing.

After saying they had ended their South East campaign with cautious optimism the party managed to take second place in the city with 18,586 going someway to dispelling the thought that have lost support in the city.

Alexandra Phillips, MEP candidate and current Brighton and Hove councillor, said: "We've got a very strong voter base in Brighton and Hove which bodes well for next year, and that result includes the whole of Brighton and Hove. We're really pleased."

But while both Labour and the Green Party are celebrating their local success polls still suggest Ukip will top the South East poll with some sources suggesting they could have as many as 5 MEPs by the end of the night with the Conservatives finishing close behind.