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2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom

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United Kingdom European Parliament election, 2009
← 2004 4 June 2009 2014 →
72 seats to the European Parliament
  First party Second party
  David Cameron
Leader David Cameron Nigel Farage
Party Conservative UKIP
Alliance ECR EFD
Leader since 6 December 2005 12 September 2006
Last election 27 seats 12 seats
Seats won 26 (including 1 UCUNF) 13
Seat change -1 +1
Popular vote 4,198,394 2,498,226
Percentage 27.7% 16.5%
Swing +1.0% +0.3%
  Third party
  Gordon Brown
Leader Gordon Brown
Party Labour
Alliance S&D
Leader since 24 June 2007
Last election 19 seats
Seats won 13
Seat change -6
Popular vote 2,381,760
Percentage 15.7%
Swing -6.9%

The European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's component of the 2009 European Parliament election, the voting for which was held on Thursday 4 June 2009, coinciding with the 2009 local elections in England. Most of the results of the election were announced on Sunday 7 June, after similar elections were held in the other 26 member states of the European Union. Scotland declared its result on Monday 8 June, as counting in the Western Isles was delayed due to observance of the Sabbath.

In total, 72 Members of the European Parliament were elected from the United Kingdom using proportional representation. (This figure would have been 73 if the Lisbon Treaty had entered into force by June 2009.) England, Scotland and Wales used the D'Hondt method of PR, whilst Northern Ireland used Single Transferable Vote (STV). Owing to the expansion of the European Union, the number of members elected for the United Kingdom was fewer than in 2004. This is because the total number of MEPs increased temporarily with the accession of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, but was subsequently reduced again in accordance with the Treaty of Nice. The number of members elected from each region was modified by the Boundary Commission and Electoral Commission, based on the size of the electorate in each region.

Notable outcomes were the significant drop in support for the Labour Party, the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) finishing second in a major election for the first time in its history, and the election of two British National Party (BNP) candidates. It was the first time the Scottish National Party won the largest share of the European election vote in Scotland,[1] and it was the first time since 1918 Labour had failed to come first in a Welsh election.[2] It was the DUP's worst ever European election result: the party had previously topped the poll in every European election in Northern Ireland since the first one in 1979.[3] It was also the first time an Irish Republican topped the poll with Bairbre de Brun coming first with 125,000 votes.

Results

Great Britain - overall result

Source: BBC News As the total number of UK seats went down compared to the 2004 election, the number of seats won in the 2004 elections is recalculated as it were in 2009 elections. Both figures are included in the table below, with the relative seat changes figures taking into account the changes in seat numbers per region.

Turnout across Great Britain was 15,136,932, representing 34% of the electorate

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #6D3177;" data-sort-value="United Kingdom Independence Party" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #FAA61A;" data-sort-value="Liberal Democrats (UK)" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #02A95B;" data-sort-value="Green Party of England and Wales" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #2e3b74;" data-sort-value="British National Party" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #FDF38E;" data-sort-value="Scottish National Party" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #005B54;" data-sort-value="Plaid Cymru" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #915F6D;" data-sort-value="English Democrats Party" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #9966CC;" data-sort-value="Christian Party (UK)" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #EE1C25;" data-sort-value="Socialist Labour Party (UK)" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: darkgrey;" data-sort-value="No to the EU – Yes to Democracy" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #00B140;" data-sort-value="Scottish Green Party" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #708090;" data-sort-value="Jury Team (UK)" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #00009C;" data-sort-value="United Kingdom First Party" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #B0E0E6;" data-sort-value="Pro-Democracy: Libertas.eu" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #808080;" data-sort-value="Pensioners Party (England)" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #d5c229;" data-sort-value="Mebyon Kernow" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #EE3263;" data-sort-value="Animals Count" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #ff0000;" data-sort-value="Scottish Socialist Party" |
Party Votes Vote % %
Change		 Seats Seats
Change		 Relative Seats
Change		 Seats %
Conservative 4,198,394 27.7% +1.0 25 -2 +1 37.7
UKIP 2,498,226 16.5% +0.3 13 +1 +1 18.8
Labour 2,381,760 15.7% -6.9 13 -6 -5 18.8
Liberal Democrats 2,080,613 13.7% -1.2 11 -1 +1 15.9
Green 1,223,303 8.6% +2.4 2 0 0 2.9
BNP 943,598 6.2% +1.3 2 +2 +2 2.9
SNP 321,007 2.1% +0.7 2 0 0 2.9
Plaid Cymru 126,702 0.8% -0.1 1 0 0 1.4
English Democrat 279,801 1.8% +1.1 0 0 0 0
Christian/Christian
People's Alliance (Joint Ticket) 		249,493 1.6% +1.6 0 0 0 0
Socialist Labour 173,115 1.1% +1.1 0 0 0 0
NO2EU 153,236 1.0% +1.0 0 0 0 0
Scottish Green 80,442 0.5% 0.0 0 0 0 0
Jury Team (UK) 78,569 0.5% +0.5 0 0 0 0
UK First 74,007 0.5% +0.5 0 0 0 0
Libertas 73,544 0.5% +0.5 0 0 0 0
Jan Jananayagam (Independent) 50,014 0.3% +0.3 0 0 0 0
Pensioners 37,785 0.2% +0.2 0 0 0 0
Mebyon Kernow 14,922 0.1% +0.1 0 0 0 0
Animal Welfare 13,201 0.1% +0.1 0 0 0 0
Scottish Socialist 10,404 0.1% -0.3 0 0 0 0
Duncan Robertson (Independent) 10,189 0.1% +0.1 0 0 0 0
Total 15,072,325 69 -6 0 100
All parties with over 10,000 votes listed.

Northern Ireland

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #326760;" data-sort-value="Sinn Féin" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #D46A4C;" data-sort-value="Democratic Unionist Party" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #9999FF;" data-sort-value="Ulster Conservatives and Unionists - New Force" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #2AA82C;" data-sort-value="Social Democratic and Labour Party" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0C3A6A;" data-sort-value="Traditional Unionist Voice" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #F6CB2F;" data-sort-value="Alliance Party of Northern Ireland" | style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #8dc63f;" data-sort-value="Green Party in Northern Ireland" |
Party Candidate Seats Loss/GainFirst Preference Votes
Number % of vote
Sinn Féin Bairbre de Brún 1 0 126,184 25.8
DUP Diane Dodds 1 0 88,346 18.1
UCU-NF Jim Nicholson 1 0 82,892 17.0
SDLP Alban Maginness 0 0 78,489 16.1
TUV Jim Allister 0 0 66,197 13.5
Alliance Ian Parsley 0 0 26,699 5.5
Green (NI) Steven Agnew 0 0 15,764 3.2
Turnout[4] 488,891 42.8

Source: BBC News

By European Party

EP Group MEPs UK Party MEPs
rowspan="2" bgcolor="Template:European Conservatives and Reformists/meta/color"| European Conservatives and Reformists 26 bgcolor="Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color"| Conservative 25
bgcolor="Template:Ulster Unionist Party/meta/color"| Conservatives and Unionists 1
bgcolor="Template:Europe of Freedom and Democracy/meta/color"| Europe of Freedom and Democracy 13 bgcolor="Template:United Kingdom Independence Party/meta/color"| UKIP 13
bgcolor="Template:Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats/meta/color"| Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats 13 bgcolor="Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color"| Labour 13
bgcolor="Template:Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe/meta/color"| Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe 11 bgcolor="Template:Liberal Democrats/meta/color"| Liberal Democrats 11
bgcolor="Template:The Greens–European Free Alliance/meta/color" rowspan="3"| The Greens–European Free Alliance 5 bgcolor="Template:Green Party of England and Wales/meta/color"| Green Party of England and Wales 2
BGCOLOR="Template:Scottish National Party/meta/color"| Scottish National Party 2
bgcolor="Template:Plaid Cymru/meta/color"| Plaid Cymru 1
bgcolor="Template:European United Left–Nordic Green Left/meta/color"| European United Left-Nordic Green Left 1 BGCOLOR="Template:Sinn Féin/meta/color"| Sinn Féin 1
bgcolor="Template:Independent (politician)/meta/color" rowspan="2" colsapn="2"| Non-Inscrits 3 bgcolor="Template:British National Party/meta/color"| British National Party 2
bgcolor="Template:Democratic Unionist Party/meta/color"| Democratic Unionist 1

Constituencies and representation

A ballot paper for the London constituency, showing 14 parties and five independent candidates to vote for, photographed at a polling booth in Hackney.

As has been the case since 1999, the electoral constituencies were based on the government's nine English regions, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, creating a total of 12 constituencies. On 31 July 2007, in line with the required reduction in representation from the United Kingdom, the Electoral Commission recommended reductions in representation from Scotland, and from 5 English regions, resulting in new representation as below:

Constituency Representation
in 2004		 Representation
in 2009		 Net Gain/Loss
East Midlands 6 5 -1
East of England 7 7 No Change
London 9 8 -1
North East England 3 3 No Change
North West England 9 8 -1
South East England 10 10 No Change
South West England1 7 6 -1
West Midlands2 7 6 -1
Yorkshire and the Humber 6 6 No Change
Wales 4 4 No Change
Scotland 7 6 -1
Northern Ireland 3 3 No Change

The recommended changes were approved by the UK Parliament in 2008.[5]

1 Includes Gibraltar, the only British overseas territory which is part of the European Union.
2 Had the Treaty of Lisbon come into force prior to these elections, the UK would have been entitled to a 73rd MEP. Were the Electoral Commission to perform a reallocation in keeping with the same procedures they used to allocate 72 MEPs, the extra MEP would have been allocated to the West Midlands constituency,[6] preserving its representation at 7 rather than reducing it to 6.

Source: The Electoral Commission

Opinion polls

In the run up to the election, several polling organisations carried out public opinion polling in regards to voting intentions in Great Britain (i.e. the UK excluding Northern Ireland, which is always[citation needed] excluded from such voting intention surveys). Results of such polls are displayed below.

ComRes, ICM, Populus and YouGov are members of the British Polling Council, and abide by its disclosure rules. BPIX is not a member of the BPC, and does not publish detailed methodology and findings.

European Parliament Election - Opinion Polling
Firm/Client Survey end date Con Labour UKIP Lib
Dem 		Green
Parties* 		BNP SNP Plaid
Cymru 		Others
YouGov/Daily Telegraph 3 June 2009 26% 16% 18% 15% 10% 5% 4% SNP + PC 6%
ComRes/Green Party
of England and Wales 		31 May 2009 24% 22% 17% 14% 15% 2% 3% - 4%
YouGov/Daily Telegraph 29 May 2009 27% 17% 16% 15% 9% 7% 4% SNP + PC 6%
ICM/Sunday Telegraph 28 May 2009 29% 17% 10% 20% 11% 5% 5% SNP + PC 3%
Populus/Times 28 May 2009 30% 16% 19% 12% 10% 5% 2% 1% 4%
ICM/Guardian 21 May 2009 30% 24% 10% 18% 9% 1% 4% SNP + PC 3%
YouGov/Daily Telegraph 16 May 2009 28% 22% 15% 17% 7% 5% 4% SNP + PC 1%
BPIX/Mail on Sunday 16 May 2009 30% 17% 17% 15% - 5% - - -
ComRes/UKIP 14 May 2009 28% 23% 15% 14% 11% 4% - - 5%
YouGov/Sun 14 May 2009 29% 20% 15% 19% 6% 3% 4% SNP + PC 1%
Populus/Times 10 May 2009 34% 25% 6% 20% 5% 2% 4% 2% 1%
YouGov/Sunday Times 8 May 2009 36% 25% 7% 20% 4% 4% 4% SNP + PC 1%
ICM/TPA 4 May 2009 32% 28% 9% 22% 1% 1% 4% 2% -
YouGov/TPA 8 January 2009 35% 29% 7% 15% 5% 4% 4% SNP + PC 2%
2004 Election 26.7% 22.6% 16.1% 14.9% 5.8% 4.9% 1.4% 1.0% 6%
2009 Election 27.7% 15.7% 16.5% 13.7% 9.1% 6.2% 2.1% 0.8% 7.9%

See also

References

  1. ^ "Salmond hails 'historic' Euro win". BBC News. 2009-06-08. Retrieved 2009-06- 09. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  2. ^ "Tories top European poll in Wales". BBC News. 2009-06-08. Retrieved 2009-06- 09. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  3. ^ "DUP's worst ever Euro poll result". BBC News. 2009-06-08. Retrieved 2009-06- 09. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  4. ^ "Electoral Office for Northern Ireland - Turnout" (PDF).
  5. ^ "The European Parliament (Number of MEPs and Distribution between Electoral Regions) (United Kingdom and Gibraltar) Order 2008 No. 1954". Opsi.gov.uk. Retrieved 2009-05-19.
  6. ^ "Distribution between electoral regions of UK MEPs (PDF)" (PDF).

Template:European Parliament constituencies 2004-2009

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