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2014 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom

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United Kingdom European Parliament election, 2014
← 2009 22 May 2014 2019 →
73 seats to the European Parliament
  David Cameron Nigel Farage
Leader David Cameron Nigel Farage
Party Conservative UKIP
Alliance ECR EFD
Leader since 6 December 2005 5 November 2010
Last election 26 seats (including 1 UCUNF) 13 seats
Current seats 26 seats 9 seats
  Ed Miliband Nick Clegg
Leader Ed Miliband Nick Clegg
Party Labour Liberal Democrats
Alliance S&D ALDE
Leader since 25 September 2010 18 December 2007
Last election 13 seats 11 seats
Current seats 13 seats 12 seats
Map of the European Parliament constituencies in the United Kingdom.
Incumbent Leader of Largest Party

David Cameron
Conservative



The United Kingdom's component of the 2014 European Parliament election is scheduled to be held on Thursday 22 May 2014,[1][2] coinciding with the 2014 local elections in England[3] and Northern Ireland.

Most of the results of the election will be announced on Sunday 25 May, after voting has closed throughout the 28 member states of the European Union.

In total, 73 Members of the European Parliament will be 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 use the Single transferable vote (STV).

Current MEPs by European Political Group

Since the last election, there have been various changes to the UK MEP breakdown. A 73rd UK MEP (Anthea McIntyre, Conservative) was allocated in December 2011 to the UK because of the Treaty of Lisbon. There have been various defections:

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

Thus, the following parties currently have MEPs representing the UK:

Key to political groups of the European Parliament (UK)[9]
Party Faction in European Parliament
Brexit Party 29 Non-Inscrits 57
DUP 1
Liberal Democrats 16 17   Renew Europe 108
Alliance 1
Green 7 11 Greens–European Free Alliance 75
SNP 3
Plaid Cymru 1
Labour 10   Socialists and Democrats 154
Conservative 4 European Conservatives and Reformists Group 62
Sinn Féin 1   European United Left–Nordic Green Left 41
Total 73 Total 750

Voting system and regional representation

As has been the case since 1999, the election is conducted in a total of 12 electoral regions: using the regional Party-list proportional representation system, in each of the government's nine English regions, Scotland and Wales, but the Single transferable vote system in Northern Ireland. 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.[10]

Electoral region Representation
in 2009		 Representation
in 2014		 Net Gain/Loss
East Midlands 5 5
East of England 7 7
London 8 8
North East England 3 3
North West England 8 8
South East England 10 10
South West England1 6 6
West Midlands 6 7 +1
Yorkshire and the Humber 6 6
Wales 4 4
Scotland 6 6
Northern Ireland 3 3

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

Returning officers

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, and Leeds Central for the Yorkshire and Humber region.[11]

Parties & candidates

39 parties are standing a total of 747 candidates. The Conservative Party and UKIP are standing candidates in every region, as are the three Green parties (the Green Party of England & Wales, the Scottish Greens, the Green Party in Northern Ireland) between them. Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the BNP are standing 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 are standing a full slate of candidates in all the English regions. The Harmony Party are standing in four regions and the Christian Peoples Alliance are standing in three regions. No2EU are standing a full slate in seven regions, while Britain First and the Socialist Party of Great Britain are standing full slates in two regions each. Other parties are only standing in one region.

Party No. of regions
in which
party is standing		 Total no. of
candidates		 Number of MEPs
before election		 European political party/
EP group
4 Freedoms Party 1 8 0 European People's Party
An Independence from Europe 9 60 1 none
Animal Welfare Party 1 8 0 none
Britain First 2 10 0 none
British National Party 11 70 1 none
Christian Peoples Alliance 3 24 0 none
Communities United 1 8 0 none
Conservative Party 12 71 26 Conservatives & Reformists
English Democrats 9 60 0 none
Europeans Party 1 6 0 none
Green Party of England & Wales 10 64 2 European Green Party/Greens & Free Alliance
Scottish Greens 1 6 0 European Green Party
Green Party (Northern Ireland) 1 1 0 European Green Party
Harmony Party 4 5 0 none
Labour Party 11 70 13 Party of European Socialists/Socialists & Democrats
Liberal Democrats 11 70 12 ALDE/Liberals & Democrats
Liberty Great Britain 1 3 0 none
National Health Action Party 1 8 0 none
National Liberal Party 1 8 0 none
No2EU 7 46 0 none
Peace Party 1 10 0 none
Pirate Party 1 3 0 none
Plaid Cymru 1 4 1 European Free Alliance/Greens & Free Alliance
Roman Party 1 1 0 none
Scottish National Party 1 6 2 European Free Alliance/Greens & Free Alliance
Socialist Equality Party 1 8 0 none
Socialist Labour Party 1 4 0 none
Socialist Party of Great Britain 2 14 0 none
UKIP 12 71 9 Freedom & Democracy
YOURvoice Party 1 3 0 none
Yorkshire First 1 3 0 none
We Demand a Referendum Now 1 7 1 none
Traditional Unionist Voice 1 1 0 none
Sinn Féin 1 1 1 EUL-NGL
SDLP 1 1 0 Party of European Socialists
Democratic Unionist Party 1 1 1 none
Alliance 1 1 0 ALDE
NI21 1 1 0 none
UUP 1 1 1 Conservatives & Reformists

Retiring/resigned incumbents

Conservative

Green

Labour

Liberal Democrats

UKIP

Debates

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.[24] 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."[25][26] Farage accepted, but said he would also like to see Ed Miliband and David Cameron participate.[27]

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.[28] 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.[29]

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.[30][31]

Opinion polls

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.[32] Data for these polls are generally gathered at the same time as the data for General Election polling.

2014

Date(s)
conducted		 Polling organisation/client Sample size Con UKIP Lab Lib Dem <span style="color:White;">Others]] Lead
30 Apr-1 May YouGov/The Sun 1,813 22% 27% 30% 9% 13% 3% over UKIP
27-30 Apr YouGov/The Sun 5,331 22% 28% 29% 9% 13% 1% over UKIP
24-28 Apr TNS 1,199 18% 36% 27% 10% 9% 9% over Lab
25-27 Apr ComRes/ITV News 2,052 18% 38% 27% 8% 14% 11% over Lab
24-25 Apr YouGov/Sunday Times 1,835 19% 31% 28% 9% 13% 3% over Lab
21-22 Apr YouGov/The Sun 2,190 22% 27% 30% 10% 11% 3% over UKIP
15-17 Apr ICM/Sunday Telegraph 2,000 22% 27% 30% 8% 13% 3% over UKIP
11-13 Apr ICM/The Guardian 1,000 25% 20% 36% 6% 13% 11% over Con
3-7 Apr TNS 1,193 21% 29% 30% 9% 11% 1% over UKIP
4-6 Apr Populus/Financial Times 2,034 27% 25% 31% 10% 7% 4% over Con
3-4 Apr YouGov/Sunday Times 1,998 22% 28% 30% 9% 10% 2% over UKIP
4 Apr Survation/Mail on Sunday 1,001 21% 27% 34% 9% 9% 7% over UKIP
2-3 Apr ComRes/The People[dead link] 2,067 22% 30% 30% 8% 10% Tie
2 Apr Broadcast of The European Union: In or Out debate.
27-28 Mar YouGov/The Sunday Times 1,916 24% 23% 32% 11% 10% 8% over Con
26-27 Mar YouGov/The Sun 2,039 24% 26% 28% 11% 11% 2% over UKIP
26 Mar LBC radio debate on the European Union between the Lib Dems' Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage of UKIP.
20-21 Mar Survation/Mail on Sunday 1,000 28% 23% 32% 7% 10% 4% over Con
17-18 Mar YouGov/Times 2,284 24% 23% 32% 10% 11% 8% over Con
12-13 Mar ComRes/Independent on Sunday 2,001 21% 30% 28% 8% 13% 2% over Lab
7-9 Feb ICM/The Guardian 1,002 25% 20% 35% 9% 11% 10% over Con
14–15 Jan YouGov/The Sun 1,893 23% 26% 32% 9% 10% 6% over UKIP
3 Jan Survation/Mail on Sunday 1,001 23% 26% 32% 9% 10% 6% over UKIP

2013

Date(s)
conducted		 Polling organisation/client Sample size Con UKIP Lab Lib Dem <span style="color:White;">Others]] Lead
21–22 Nov Survation/Daily Star[dead link] 1,006 24% 25% 32% 8% 12% 7% over UKIP
11 Oct Survation/Mail on Sunday 1,017 21% 22% 35% 11% 11% 13% over UKIP
22–24 May ComRes/Open Europe 2,003 21% 27% 23% 18% 11% 4% over Lab
17–18 May Survation/Mail on Sunday 1,000 20% 30% 31% 8% 11% 1% over UKIP
17–18 Jan YouGov/The Sun 1,912 30% 12% 38% 13% 7% 8% over Con
10–11 Jan YouGov/The Sun 1,995 24% 19% 36% 12% 10% 12% over Con
9–10 Jan ComRes/Sunday People 2,002 22% 23% 35% 8% 12% 12% over UKIP
8–9 Jan YouGov/The Sun 1,980 27% 17% 38% 12% 6% 11% over Con
5 Jan Survation/Mail on Sunday 772 24% 22% 31% 11% 12% 7% over Con
4 Jun 2009 European Parliament election, 2009 (United Kingdom) Results 15,136,932 27.7% 16.5% 15.7% 13.7% 25.6% 11.2% over UKIP

Scottish polls

Date(s)
conducted		 Polling organisation/client Sample size SNP Lab Con Lib Dem UKIP <span style="color:White;">Others]] Lead
11-22 Apr 2014 YouGov/Edinburgh University 1,014 33% (3) 31% (2) 12% (1) 7% 10% 7% 2% over Lab
14-16 Apr 2014 ICM/Scotland on Sunday 1,004 37% (3) 28% (2) 11% (1) 7% 10% 6% 9% over Lab
4-7 Apr 2014 Survation/Daily Record 1,002 39% (3) 30% (2) 14% (1) 6% 7% 5% 9% over Lab
17-21 Mar 2014 ICM/Scotsman 1,010 41% (3) 29% (2) 13% (1) 5% 6% 6% 12% over Lab
21-24 Jan 2014 ICM/Scotsman 1,010 43% (3) 24% (2) 14% (1) 6% 7% 6% 19% over Lab
4 Jun 2009 European Parliament election, 2009 (Scotland) Results 1,104,512 29.1% (2) 20.8% (2) 16.8% (1) 11.5% (1) 5.2% 16.6% 8.2% over Lab

Welsh polls

Date(s)
conducted		 Polling organisation/client Sample size Con Lab Plaid UKIP Lib Dem <span style="color:White;">Others]] Lead
11-22 Apr 2014 YouGov/Cardiff University, Edinburgh University, IPPR 1,027 18% (1) 39% (2) 11% 20% (1) 7% 6% 19% over UKIP
10-12 Feb 2014 YouGov/ITV 1,250 17% (1) 39% (2) 12% 18% (1) 7% 7% 21% over UKIP
2-4 Dec 2013 YouGov/ITV 1,001 20% (1) 41% (3) 13% 13% 8% 5% 21% over Con
4 Jun 2009 European Parliament election, 2009 (Wales) Results 684,520 21.2% (1) 20.3% (1) 18.5% (1) 12.8% (1) 10.7% 16.6% 1% over Lab

London polls

Date(s)
conducted		 Polling organisation/client Sample size Con Lab Lib Dem Green UKIP <span style="color:White;">Others]] Lead
28-29 Apr 2014 Survation 1,001 21% (2) 39% (3) 13% (1) 7% 20% (2) 1% 18% over Con
7-9 Apr 2014 YouGov/Evening Standard 1,209 25% (2) 33% (3) 11% (1) 5% 24% (2) 3% 8% over Con
4 Jun 2009 European Parliament election, 2009 (London) Results 1,751,026 27.4% (3) 21.3% (2) 13.7% (1) 10.9% (1) 10.8% (1) 15.9% 6.1% over Lab

See also

References

  1. ^ "EU reschedules elections to boost turnout". Upi.com. 11 March 2013. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
  2. ^ "EU elections: Polling day will stay on Thursday, insists government". BBC. 13 March 2013. Retrieved 3 August 2013.
  3. ^ "Wards and Election Information". Elmbridge.gov.uk. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
  4. ^ Paul Owen. "Former leader of Tory MEPs Edward MacMillan-Scott joins Lib Dems | Politics". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  5. ^ "UKIP MEP Campbell Bannerman defects to Conservatives". BBC News. 24 May 2011. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  6. ^ James Tapsfield (23 February 2013). "Ukip MEP Marta Andreasen defects to the Tories and launches attack on Nigel Farage - UK Politics - UK". London: The Independent. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  7. ^ "Mike Nattrass". Europarl.europa.eu. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
  8. ^ Robin Brant (24 September 2013). "BBC News - Godfrey Bloom quits as UKIP MEP after 'sluts' joke row". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
  9. ^ "Results by national party: 2019-2024 United Kingdom - Final results". European Parliament. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  10. ^ Jason Groves (2 December 2011). "Woman MEP Anthea McIntyre takes post despite not a single vote". London: Dailymail.co.uk. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
  11. ^ "Order in Council". Legislation.gov. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  12. ^ a b c d "Would you like to be a Tory MEP? There could be nine vacancies in 2014... Tory MPs". Conservativehome.blogs.com. 23 May 2012. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
  13. ^ Michael Cashman CBE MEP. "West Mids Michael Cashman MEP to stand down in 2014 | Michael Cashman CBE MEP". Michael-cashman.eu. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
  14. ^ "Hughes to leave Europe at next election | IWC2". Labour North. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
  15. ^ "dear member". us2.forward-to-friend.com. Retrieved 3 August 2013.
  16. ^ "Passing on the baton". PeterSkinnerMEP.eu. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
  17. ^ "MEP Diana Wallis criticised over resignation 'nepotism'". Bbc.co.uk. 19 January 2012. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
  18. ^ "Lib Dem MEP Liz Lynne to stand down". Bbc.co.uk. 6 November 2011. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
  19. ^ Jill Treanor (9 October 2012). "Lib Dem MEP Sharon Bowles applies for Bank of England governor job". London: Guardian. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
  20. ^ "UKIP MEP for Wales John Bufton to stand down at election". Bbc.co.uk. 24 May 2013. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
  21. ^ "East Midlands UKIP MEP to stand down next June". BBC News. 3 June 2013. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
  22. ^ "Godfrey Bloom quits as UKIP MEP after 'sluts' joke row". BBC News. 24 September 2013. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
  23. ^ "Ukip's Godfrey Bloom to sit as independent MEP after "sluts" row". Mirror. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
  24. ^ "Nick Clegg Challenges Nigel Farage To Head-To-Head EU Debate". Huffington Post. Retrieved 21 February 2014.
  25. ^ "Clegg Challenges Farage To In/Out EU Debate On LBC". LBC 97.3. Retrieved 21 February 2014.
  26. ^ "Nick Clegg challenges Nigel Farage to live debate on Britain's EU membership". Guardian Online. Retrieved 21 February 2014.
  27. ^ Dominiczak, Peter (21 February 2014). "Nigel Farage agrees to EU debate with Nick Clegg". London: Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 21 February 2014.
  28. ^ "Nick Clegg clashes with Nigel Farage in EU debate". BBC News. 26 March 2014.
  29. ^ "BBC News - Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage in heated BBC debate over EU". Bbc.co.uk. 3 April 2014. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
  30. ^ "EU election: Tory, Labour, UKIP and Lib Dem on Europe". BBC News. 13 April 2014. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  31. ^ "EU referendum: Tory, Labour, UKIP and Lib Dem policy". BBC News. 13 April 2014. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  32. ^ Kellner, Peter (15 January 2013). "Measuring UKIP's support". yougov.
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