Amjad Bashir said his election as one of three Ukip MEPs in the Yorkshire and the Humber region gives the lie to his party's portrayal as a racist organisation.

The Leeds businessman said: "Here I am, of Asian birth, of Asian parentage, Muslim, and I have been selected by this so-called racist party.

"It disproves that completely.

"The party, in selecting me, I was voted in, it was a democratic process where the whole party nationally voted for me. I got the second highest number of votes and, therefore, I was selected for the area."

Ukip topped the poll in the region with more than 400,000 votes.

Mr Bashir said the party were sure they would get two seats in Yorkshire and the Humber and were overjoyed to get three.

"It shows the hard work that we've put in.

"We've not been afraid to go out to the public, be asked difficult questions and answer those difficult questions.

"We've also listened and other parties have failed to do that."

Town after town in Yorkshire fell to Ukip as the results rolled in.

Rotherham, where the party did well in Thursday's council election, was one of the earliest to see the party come in first.

It was followed by others including Wakefield, York, Selby and Grimsby (North East Lincolnshire).

Of the bigger cities in the region, Hull also saw Ukip come in first, although Labour came out top in the big three - Sheffield, Leeds and Bradford.

It was a bad night for the Lib Dems in Yorkshire and the Humber, with the party coming in fifth, trailing the Greens in the overall vote.

The party also came fifth in Sheffield, where Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg is among the local MPs.