‘Height of hypocrisy’: New Brexit Party MEP for northeast England lives in south of France

A Brexit Party candidate who lives in the south of France has won election to represent the northeast of England in the European parliament.

Brian Monteith, a former Conservative member of the Scottish parliament, is one of two pro-Brexit candidates to win in the region, after Nigel Farage’s insurgent party pulled off a major victory in the EU elections on Sunday night.

He will be joined in Brussels by John Tennant, a former aide to Mr Farage who once praised a Ukip MEP for using a Nazi slogan to insult a German colleague.

Jude Kirton-Darling, a Labour MEP who retained the region’s third and final seat, said voters had elected a “man who cares not for this region”.

“I think it’s the height of hypocrisy that somebody who’s standing on a platform to remove free movement from the young people of this area … actually benefits himself from free movement by living in France and commuting between London and his home in France for work,” she said.

In a notice of election, which includes all candidates’ addresses, Mr Monteith is listed as living in Trevien, a village with fewer than 200 residents, according to a 2016 census.

Mr Monteith, who was branded a “Thatcherite Scottish Tory” by Ukip’s lead northeast candidate Richard Elvin, told The Guardian it was “not unusual” to live in a country different to the one in which you are seeking election, and said he was now moving back to Britain.

In a region which strongly backed Leave in the 2016 referendum, the Brexit Party’s success there came as no surprise.

Mr Farage’s party won 240,056 votes, more than twice as many as Labour (119,931) in second and the Liberal Democrats (104,056) in third.

The Conservatives (42,395) finished in fifth, behind the Greens (49,905) and only just ahead of Ukip (38,269). Change UK (24,968) came a distant seventh.