In an election heavily influenced by Brexit, Ms Anderson topped the poll with 126,951 votes, narrowly ahead of the DUP’s Diane Dodds with 124,991.

Counting showed that the traditional unionist parties have shed one in five of their votes in the Euro election. These went mostly to the more cross-community Alliance Party, which avidly opposes Brexit.

Alliance leader Naomi Long’s tally of 105,928 is the party’s highest ever in a European election and she has more than doubled her party’s support since 2014.

Long is now tipped to take the third and final EU seat from the Ulster Unionist Party in what are seeing as a significant shift in northern politics.

Alongside Anderson, the Six Counties is now expected to return two MEPs opposed to Brexit to one who is in favour -- Dodds, now the only Unionist MEP as such.