UKIP gained two of the four South East Wales regional seats in Thursday’s election, with the other two going to Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Conservatives.

Former Rochester and Strood MP Mark Reckless, who defected to Ukip from the Conservatives in 2014, topped the list, with Plaid Cymru’s Steffan Lewis winning the second seat.

Ukip candidate David Rowlands was named as the region’s third AM while Conservative Mohammad Asghar – popularly known as Oscar – was the only one of the regions four previous members to be re-elected.

Former Plaid Cymru AM for region Jocelyn Davies stepped down from the Assembly this year while her party colleague Lindsay Whittle ran instead for Caerphilly. He was defeated by Labour candidate Hefin David.

Conservative William Graham was named in fifth the party’s list, meaning he stood no chance of being re-elected.

Saying he was “absolutely delighted” to be elected, Mr Reckless said: “I look forward to doing my best in the Assembly.”

He added: “I know Newport is on the up – I want to keep it on the up.”

Paying tribute to party colleagues Mr Whittle and Ms Davies, Mr Lewis said: “There is going to be a very different National Assembly from next week.

“The people of Wales will be expecting that National Assembly to deliver.

“As always the people of this country can rely on the Party of Wales to deliver.”

Mr Rowlands said he wanted to see an end to what he called Wales’ “begging bowl economy”.

“We will all work together to make Wales a better country to live in,” he said.

And Mr Asghar said: “I believe the Conservative Party is growing here in South East Wales.

“I am very grateful once again for everybody who supported the Conservative Party in Wales and I am sure we will turn around everything Labour is doing.

Although Labour won the greatest number of votes in the region with 74,424, the way in which regional votes are divided by the number of constituencies won by the party meant it did not win any of the four seats.

Ukip won the second greatest number of votes with 34,524, followed by the Welsh Conservatives at 33,318 and Plaid Cymru with 29,686.

The Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party put in a strong showing with 7,780 votes, ahead of the Liberal Democrats with 6,784, the Wales Green Party with 4,831 and the Monster Raving Loony Party with 1,115.

Bringing up the rear in the region were the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition with 618 votes, the Welsh Communist Party with 492 and the National Front with 429.