European Parliament election in United Kingdom, 2014

"
← "2009 22 May 2014
All 73 United Kingdom seats to the "European Parliament
Turnout	35.6%[1] 0.9%
First party Second party Third party   "" "" "" Leader "Nigel Farage "Ed Miliband "David Cameron Party "UKIP "Labour "Conservative Alliance "EFDD "S&D "ECR Leader since "5 November 2010 "25 September 2010 "6 December 2005 Last election 13 seats, 16.0% 13 seats, 15.2% 26 seats[2], 27.4% Seats won 24 20 19 Seat change 11 7 7 Popular vote 4,376,635 4,020,646 3,792,549 Percentage 26.6% 24.4% 23.1% Swing 10.6% 9.2% 3.8%
""
Leader of Largest Party before election "David Cameron "Conservative Subsequent Leader of Largest Party "Nigel Farage "UKIP

Part of a "series of articles on the
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"v "t e

The United Kingdom's component of the "2014 European Parliament election was held on Thursday 22 May 2014,^[3][4] coinciding with the "2014 local elections in England^[5] and Northern Ireland. In total, 73 "Members of the European Parliament were elected from the United Kingdom using "proportional representation. "England, "Scotland and "Wales use a closed-list "party list system of PR (with the "D'Hondt method), while "Northern Ireland used the "single transferable vote (STV).

Most of the results of the election were announced after 10pm on Sunday 25 May (Although "Scotland didn't declare its result until the following day), after voting closed throughout the 28 member states of the "European Union. Given the subsequent Leave vote in the "23 June 2016 referendum, it seems highly likely that this will be the last time the United Kingdom participated in a European Parliament election.^[6]

The "UK Independence Party (UKIP) came top of the poll – the first time a political party other than the "Labour Party or "Conservative Party has won the popular vote in a British election since the "1906 general election winning 26.6% of the national vote and 24 seats overall from every region apart from "Northern Ireland and also won the highest vote share in 168 council areas with the highest local council vote share recorded in "Boston in "Lincolnshire where they won 51.6% of the vote share although it was the only council area in the "United Kingdom where they won more than half the vote.^[7][8] It is also the first time a party other than the Labour and Conservatives won the largest number of seats in a national election since the "December 1910 general election.^[9][10][11]

The "Labour Party became the first largest opposition party since "1984 that failed to win the European Parliament election, although they did gain 7 seats, taking their overall tally to 20. They concurrently won the largest share of the vote in 100 council areas, with their largest vote share recorded in "Newham at 58.4%.^[12]

The co-governing "Conservatives were pushed into third place for the first time in any European Parliament winning just 23.3% of the national vote share and losing 7 seats to fall to 19 overall, one behind Labour and won the largest share of the vote in just 89 council areas and their highest vote was recorded in "Elmbridge at 43.1%.

The co-governing "Liberal Democrats lost ten of their eleven seats they were defending and nationally won just 6.6% of the vote share and won just 4 council areas, their highest vote share was recorded in "Gibraltar where they won 67.2% of the vote share.

In Scotland the "Scottish National Party won the largest share of the vote taking 29% of the vote and won the largest share of the vote in 15 of the 32 Scottish council areas and held on to its two seats although they only won 2.3% of the national UK vote.

Figures released in December 2014 showed that the Conservatives and UKIP each spent £2.96m on the campaign, the Liberal Democrats £1.5 million and the Labour party approximately £1m.^[13]

Results[edit]

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Map of highest polling party in each council area (results for Northern Ireland per council area are not available):^[14]

  "UKIP

  "Labour

  "Conservatives

  "SNP

  "Plaid Cymru

  "Liberal Democrats

Full results table of the 2014 European Parliament election for the United Kingdom^[15][16]

Party		"Euro Party		"Euro Group		Votes			Seats
						Number	%	+/-	Number	+/-	%
	"UK Independence Party		None (later "ADDE)		"EFDD	4,376,635	26.60%	10.61	24	11	32.88%
	"Labour Party		"PES		"S&D	4,020,646	24.43%	9.19	20	7	27.40%
	"Conservative Party		"AECR		"ECR	3,792,549	23.05%	3.83	19	6	26.03%
	"Green Party of England and Wales		"EGP		"G-EFA	1,136,670	6.91%	0.92	3	1	4.11%
	"Scottish National Party		"EFA		"G-EFA	389,503	2.37%	0.31	2		2.74%
	"Liberal Democrats		"ALDE		"ALDE	1,087,633	6.61%	6.71	1	10	1.37%
	"Sinn Féin		None		"EUL-NGL	159,813	0.97%	0.16	1		1.37%
	"Democratic Unionist Party		None		None	131,163	0.80%	0.23	1		1.37%
	"Plaid Cymru		"EFA		"G-EFA	111,864	0.68%	0.13	1		1.37%
	"Ulster Unionist Party		"AECR		"ECR	83,438	0.51%	0.02	1		1.37%
	"An Independence from Europe		None		None	235,124	1.43%	New	0	New	0.00%
	"British National Party		"AENM		None	179,694	1.09%	4.95	0	2	0.00%
	"English Democrats		None		None	126,024	0.77%	1.03	0		0.00%
	"Scottish Green Party		"EGP		None	108,305	0.66%	0.14	0		0.00%
	"Social Democratic and Labour Party		"PES		None	81,594	0.50%	0.01	0		0.00%
	"Traditional Unionist Voice		None		None	75,806	0.46%	0.04	0		0.00%
	"Christian Peoples Alliance		"ECPM		None	50,222	0.31%	1.29	0		0.00%
	"Alliance Party of Northern Ireland		None		None	44,432	0.27%	0.10	0		0.00%
	"No2EU		None		None	31,757	0.19%	0.79	0		0.00%
	"4 Freedoms Party (UK EPP)		None		None	28,014	0.17%	New	0	New	0.00%
	"We Demand a Referendum Now		None		None	23,426	0.14%	New	0	New	0.00%
	"National Health Action Party		None		None	23,253	0.14%	New	0	New	0.00%
	"Animal Welfare Party		None		None	21,092	0.13%	0.04	0		0.00%
	"Britain First		None		None	20,272	0.12%	New	0	New	0.00%
	"Yorkshire First		None		None	19,017	0.12%	New	0	New	0.00%
	Europeans Party		None		None	10,712	0.07%	New	0	New	0.00%
	"Green Party in Northern Ireland		"EGP		None	10,598	0.06%	0.04	0		0.00%
	"NI21		None		None	10,553	0.06%	New	0	New	0.00%
	"Peace Party		None		None	10,130	0.06%		0		0.00%
	Others		Various		None	55,011	0.33%	3.36	0		0.00%
Valid Votes						16,454,950	100.00%		73	1	100.00%
Rejected Votes						90,812	0.55%
Total Polled						16,545,762
Verified Votes							34.19%
Registered Electors

Election results by constituency^[15]

MEPs defeated[edit]

Conservative[edit]

• "Marina Yannakoudakis – London
• "Martin Callanan – North East
• "Marta Andreasen – South East

Liberal Democrats[edit]

• "Bill Newton Dunn – East Midlands
• "Andrew Duff – East of England
• "Sarah Ludford – London
• "Chris Davies – North West
• "Graham Watson – South West
• "Phil Bennion – West Midlands
• "Edward McMillan-Scott – Yorkshire and the Humber
• "George Lyon – Scotland

British National Party[edit]

• "Nick Griffin – North West

An Independence from Europe[edit]

• "Mike Nattrass – West Midlands

We Demand a Referendum[edit]

• "Nikki Sinclaire – West Midlands

MEPs before the 2014 election, by European Parliament group[edit]

Between the 2009 and 2014 elections, there were various changes to the breakdown of UK members. In December 2011 a 73rd member from the UK ("Anthea McIntyre, Conservative) was allocated to England because of the implementation of the "Treaty of Lisbon. There were also various defections:

• one Conservative MEP ("Edward McMillan-Scott) defected to the Liberal Democrats (March 2010);^[17]
• one Conservative MEP ("Roger Helmer) defected to UKIP (March 2012);
• two UKIP MEPs ("David Campbell Bannerman in May 2011^[18] and "Marta Andreasen in February 2013) defected to the Conservatives;^[19]
• one UKIP MEP ("Nikki Sinclaire) left the party and later founded the "We Demand a Referendum party;
• one UKIP MEP ("Mike Nattrass) left the party in September 2013 and later founded "An Independence from Europe;^[20]
• one UKIP MEP ("Godfrey Bloom) left the party in September 2013 and sat as an independent;^[21]
• one BNP MEP ("Andrew Brons) left the party and later founded the "British Democratic Party.

The "Ulster Conservatives and Unionists - New Force (UCUNF) electoral pact between the Conservatives and the "Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) was dissolved.

Thus, before the 2014 election, the following parties had MEPs representing UK constituencies:

Voting system and regional representation[edit]

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Polling station in "Gosberton in "Lincolnshire within the "East Midlands Constituency on 22 May 2014

The United Kingdom elected 73 "Members of the European Parliament using "proportional representation. The United Kingdom was divided into twelve multi-member constituencies. The eleven of these regions which form "Great Britain used a closed-list "party list system method of "proportional representation, calculated using the "D'Hondt method. "Northern Ireland used the "Single Transferable Vote (STV). As a result of the "Treaty of Lisbon coming into force, the UK became entitled to a 73rd MEP as from November 2011. The Electoral Commission performed a reallocation in keeping with the same procedures they used to allocate 72 MEPs and an extra Conservative MEP was allocated to the West Midlands constituency based on the 2009 vote and was enshrined in the "European Union Act 2011 as an amendment of the "European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002.^[22]

¹ Includes "Gibraltar, the only "British overseas territory which is part of the European Union.

Returning officers[edit]

The European Parliamentary Elections (Returning Officers) Order 2013 provides for the designated "Returning Officer for each electoral region to be the council official responsible for elections in each of the following Westminster constituencies: "Kettering for the East Midlands, "Chelmsford for the Eastern region, "Lewisham, Deptford for the London region, "Sunderland Central for the North East region, "Manchester Central for the North West region, "Falkirk for Scotland, "Southampton, Test for the South East region, "Poole for the South West region, "Preseli Pembrokeshire for Wales, "Birmingham Ladywood for the West Midlands region, "Leeds Central for the Yorkshire and Humber region, and "Belfast South for the Northern Ireland Region^[23]

Parties and candidates[edit]

It has been suggested that "United in Europe be "merged into this article. ("Discuss) Proposed since July 2017.

39 parties stood a total of 747 candidates. The Conservative Party and UKIP had candidates in every region, as did the three Green parties. Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the BNP had a full slate of candidates in all the regions in Great Britain (i.e. excluding Northern Ireland). The "English Democrats and "An Independence from Europe had a full slate of candidates in all the English regions. "No2EU had a full slate in seven regions, while "Britain First and the "Socialist Party of Great Britain had full slates in two regions each. The Harmony Party stood in four regions and the "Christian Peoples Alliance in three regions. Other parties only stood in one region.

"United in Europe was a "single-issue party founded to contest these elections in Scotland, advocating continued membership of the UK in the EU.^[24] Founded by Charles Cormack in Edinburgh in January 2014 and registered on 3 April 2014^[25] as a response to UKIP and "Euroscepticism,^[26][27] the party did not stand^[28] and was deregistered in November 2015.^[29]

Retiring/resigned incumbents[edit]

British Democratic Party[edit]

(Elected in 2009 as British National Party)

• "Andrew Brons – Yorkshire and the Humber

Conservative[edit]

• "Struan Stevenson ("Scotland)^[30]
• "Sir Robert Atkins ("North West England)^[30]
• "Giles Chichester ("South West England and Gibraltar)^[30]
• "Robert Sturdy ("East of England)^[30]

Green[edit]

• "Caroline Lucas ("South East England) – Resigned 17 May 2010 & replaced by "Keith Taylor

Labour[edit]

• "Michael Cashman ("West Midlands)^[31]
• "Stephen Hughes ("North East England)^[32]
• "Arlene McCarthy ("North West England)
• "Brian Simpson ("North West England)^[33]
• "Peter Skinner ("South East England)^[34]

Liberal Democrats[edit]

• "Diana Wallis ("Yorkshire and the Humber) – Resigned 31 January 2012^[35] & replaced by "Rebecca Taylor
• "Liz Lynne ("West Midlands) – Resigned 4 February 2012^[36] & replaced by "Phil Bennion
• "Sharon Bowles – ("South East England)^[37]
• "Rebecca Taylor ("Yorkshire and the Humber)
• "Fiona Hall ("North East England)

UKIP[edit]

• "John Bufton ("Wales)^[38]
• "Trevor Colman ("South West England and Gibraltar)
• "Derek Clark ("East Midlands)^[39]
• "Godfrey Bloom ("Yorkshire & Humber), Having spent the last 8 months of his term as an independent^[40][41]

Debates[edit]

On 20 February, the "Deputy Prime Minister "Nick Clegg used his weekly phone-in show on "LBC 97.3 to challenge the leader of the "UK Independence Party, "Nigel Farage, to a live public debate on the UK's membership of the "European Union.^[42] Clegg said, "he is the leader of the party of 'out'; I am the leader of the party of 'in'. I think it's time we now have a proper, public debate so that the public can listen to the two sides of the argument and judge from themselves."^[43][44] Farage accepted, but said he would also like to see "Ed Miliband and "David Cameron participate.^[45]

The first hour-long debate between the two men was held on 26 March 2014 and was broadcast live on television by "Sky News and on the "BBC News Channel. The debate was hosted by LBC and moderated by "Nick Ferrari.^[46] After the first debate, a YouGov poll asked "Who performed better?", with 57% saying Farage did better compared to 36% for Clegg.

The second debate was held on "BBC Two on 2 April in a special programme called "The European Union: In or Out, moderated by "David Dimbleby. Farage was again seen as outperforming his rival, with a snap poll by YouGov showing 68% of people thought he did better in the debate compared to 27% for Clegg. A snap Guardian poll also showed that 69% thought Farage won the debate.^[47]

Despite "David Cameron and "Ed Miliband declining to participate in the leaders' debates, the Conservative and Labour parties were represented in a lower-profile debate on the BBC. On 13 February "Andrew Neil hosted a four-way debate on the BBC's "Sunday Politics programme. The Conservatives were represented by "Syed Kamall MEP, Labour by "Richard Howitt MEP, the Liberal Democrats by "Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP and the UK Independence Party by "Patrick O'Flynn, the party's "Director of communications and an MEP candidate.^[48][49]

Opinion polls[edit]

These opinion polls are for Great Britain and generally exclude Northern Ireland. The methodology used for these polls broadly corresponds to that used for "opinion polling for the next United Kingdom general election; see that article for the methodology used by each polling company. YouGov have experimented with different methods of polling for these elections, using their own method for their 8–9 January 2013 poll and another corresponding to that used by Survation and ComRes for their 10–11 January 2013 poll (both below) and argue that their method gives more accurate answers.^[50] Data for these polls are generally gathered at the same time as the data for General Election polling.

2014[edit]

2013[edit]

Scottish polls[edit]

Welsh polls[edit]

London polls[edit]

See also[edit]

• "List of political parties in the United Kingdom
• "Members of the European Parliament for the United Kingdom 2014–19
• "Opinion polling for the next United Kingdom general election
• "United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, 2016
• "Newark by-election, 2014
• "United Kingdom general election, 2015

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• UK European Parliament Information Office
• Euro Election 2014