European_Parliament_Election,_2004_(UK)

2004 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom

2004 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom

Election

The 2004 European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's part of the wider 2004 European Parliament election which was held between 10 and 13 June 2004 in the 25 member states of the European Union. The United Kingdom's part of this election was held on Thursday 10 June 2004. The election also coincided with the 2004 local elections and the London Assembly and mayoral elections. In total, 78 Members of the European Parliament were elected from the United Kingdom using proportional representation.

Quick Facts All 78 of the United Kingdom's seats in the European Parliament, Turnout ...

The Conservative Party and the Labour Party both polled poorly. The Conservatives experienced their second-lowest ever recorded vote share in a national election (even less than their 1832 nadir, although the party would do worse still in the 2014 and 2019 elections), and Labour their lowest since 1918. The UK Independence Party (UKIP) saw a large increase in support, increasing its number of MEPs from 3 to 12 and on popular vote pushed the Liberal Democrats, who themselves had increased their representation from 10 to 12 seats into fourth place. In Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin beat the SDLP in the polls and took its first Northern Ireland seat.

Background

Electoral system

The United Kingdom elected 78 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 consequence of the 2004 enlargement of the European Union, the number of seats allocated to the United Kingdom was fewer than in 1999.

It was the first European election to be held in the United Kingdom using postal-only voting in four areas: the North East, North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, and East Midlands regions.[3]

Regional seat allocations

A combination of the effects of the Treaty of Nice and the 2004 enlargement of the European Union meant that the number of seats allocated to the United Kingdom for the 2004 election was reduced from the 87 MEPs allocated for the 1999 election to 78 MEPs.[4][5]

As a result of the successful challenge of Matthews v United Kingdom before the European Court of Human Rights in 1999[6] residents of Gibraltar, voted in the European Parliament election for the first time, as part of the South West England region.[7]

More information Constituency, Representation in 1999 ...

1 Includes Gibraltar, the only British overseas territory which was part of the EU.

Results

Partial map, showing most popular party by counting area in Great Britain only.

Turnout for all the regions was 38.2% on an electorate of 44,157,267[9] (43,084,598 in Great Britain and 1,072,669 in Northern Ireland).[10] The Conservatives and Labour both polled poorly. The Conservatives, although getting a vote share 4.1% greater than Labour, experienced their lowest vote share in a national election since 1832. Labour's vote share was its lowest since 1918. Labour's decline in votes was regarded as being largely due to widespread public dissatisfaction about the Iraq War and (as with the Conservatives) the increased popularity of UK Independence Party (UKIP). UKIP saw a large increase in support, increasing its number of MEPs from 3 to 12, drawing level with the Liberal Democrats, who themselves had increased their representation from 10 to 12 seats. UKIP polled higher than the Liberal Democrats to push the latter into fourth place.

Turnout was lowest in Scotland, which did not hold local elections on the same day. In Scotland, Labour topped the poll, followed by the Scottish National Party (SNP). The Conservatives' share of the vote declined by 2 per cent, making it the region with the smallest swing against them.[8]

Wales was the only region were Labour increased its share of the vote compared to 1999. The Conservatives managed to make gains pushing Plaid Cymru into third and whose share of the vote fell by 12 percentage points relative to 1999. Similarly UKIP narrowly beat the Liberal Democrats into fourth place. Wales was the region where the Green Party polled their lowest share of the vote.[8]

United Kingdom

More information Party, Votes won ...
All parties listed.

†Loss/gain figures for seats are losses/gains versus the 1999 notional result, as the number of MEPs overall fell.

Great Britain

Summary of the election results for Great Britain[2]

More information Party, Votes won ...
All parties listed.

†Loss/gain figures for seats are losses/gains versus the 1999 notional result, as the number of MEPs overall fell.

Gibraltar

Main article: 2004 European Parliament election in Gibraltar

Gibraltar participated in the United Kingdom's election for the first time in 2004 as part of the South West England constituency. Gibraltar is a British overseas territory (BOT) and therefore is under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the United Kingdom but does not form part of it.[11] Gibraltar was however part of the EU, the only BOT to be so included. Following however, the result of the successful challenge of Matthews v United Kingdom before the European Court of Human Rights in 1999[6] residents of Gibraltar were given the right to vote in the European Parliament elections. The British government decided not to give Gibraltar its own seat due to its small electorate of just over 20,000 which would have meant with just one seat Gibraltar would have been over-represented by about 30 times the average.[7]

None of the main Gibraltar political parties contested the election, so voters chose from United Kingdom party lists. However, Lyana Armstrong-Emery of Gibraltar's Reform Party had a place on a joint list with the Green Party. In addition both the leader of the Conservative Party, Michael Howard, and his deputy, Michael Ancram, campaigned in Gibraltar.[12]

Turnout in Gibraltar was 57.5%, higher than the 37.6% for the South West England electoral region as a whole.[13] The Conservative Party polled over two-thirds of the Gibraltar vote, with no other party exceeding 10% support.

Northern Ireland

Turnout in Northern Ireland was 51.2%.[14] Sinn Féin beat the SDLP in the polls and took its first Northern Ireland seat. Sinn Féin also won a seat in the corresponding elections in the Republic of Ireland.[15] Sinn Féin and the DUP increased their shares of the vote relative to the 1999 European Parliament elections, while the shares for both the SDLP and the UUP fell.[8] This was also the final election in which a Unionist candidate topped the poll in Northern Ireland.[16] Jim Allister of the DUP and Bairbre de Brún of Sinn Féin were elected in the first round while Jim Nicholson of the UUP was elected in the third stage, after the votes of the other candidates were reallocated.[8]

Summary of the election results for Northern Ireland[17]

More information Party, Candidate(s) ...

MEPs defeated

Labour

Conservative

Plaid Cymru

Aftermath

Both Tony Blair and Michael Howard faced criticism for their results with then Secretary of State for Health John Reid calling the results "disappointing" for Labour and "disastrous" for the Conservatives.[21]

Shortly after the election UKIP's Robert Kilroy-Silk, who was credited with raising the profile of the party during the election, was interviewed by Channel 4 television about leadership ambitions, Kilroy-Silk did not deny having ambitions to lead the party, but stressed that Roger Knapman would lead it into the next general election.[citation needed] However, the next day, on Breakfast with Frost, he criticised Knapman's leadership.[22] After further disagreement with the leadership, Kilroy-Silk resigned the UKIP whip in the European Parliament on 27 October 2004.[23] Initially, he remained a member, while seeking a bid for the party leadership.[24] However, this was not successful and he resigned completely from UKIP on 20 January 2005, calling it a "joke".[25] Two weeks later, he founded his own party, Veritas, taking a number of UKIP members, including both of the London Assembly members, with him.[26]

UKIP formed a new European Parliament Group, Independence/Democracy which was co-chaired by Nigel Farage and Hanne Dahl.

See also

Notes

  1. At the time of the election the party had principal speakers rather than leaders.

References

  1. [1]
    "Previous European Parliamentary Elections – About Parliament". European Parliament. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  2. [2]
    "European Election: United Kingdom Result". BBC News. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
  3. [3]
    Research Paper 04/50 European Parliament elections 2004, House of Commons Library, 23 June 2004
  4. [4]
    "Treaty of Nice: The other institutions and bodies of the Union". Europa. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  5. [5]
    "Changes in the distribution of seats in the European Parliament". Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l'Europe. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  6. [6]
    "ECHR Portal HTML View". 16 May 2012. Archived from the original on 16 May 2012.
  7. [7]
    "Court upholds Rock voting rights". BBC News. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
  8. [8]
    Research Paper 04/50 European Parliament elections 2004, House of Commons Library, 23 June 2004, p. 8
  9. [9]
    Fisher, Stephen; Smith, Shawna (2005). "United Kingdom". European Journal of Political Research. 44 (7–8): 1211–1220. doi:10.1111/j.1475-6765.2005.00286.x. ISSN 0304-4130.
  10. [10]
    Mellows-Facer, Adam; Cracknell, Richard; Yonwin, Jessica (23 June 2004). "European Parliament elections 2004" (PDF). House of Commons Library: 11-25. Retrieved 11 October 2022. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  11. [11]
    "UK Overseas Territories - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk.
  12. [12]
    Wilkinson, Isambard (18 May 2004). "The Tories won't let you down, Howard tells Gibraltar". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 13 September 2012. Retrieved 19 September 2008.
  13. [13]
    Reyes, Brian (8 June 2009). "Landslide for Tories Disappointment for Labour". Gibraltar Chronicle. Archived from the original on 10 June 2009. Retrieved 2009-06-08. ()
  14. [14]
    "European Election: Northern Ireland Result". BBC News. 14 June 2004. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
  15. [15]
    "Vote further polarises Ulster politics". The Guardian. 15 June 2004. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  16. [16]
    "DUP's worst ever Euro poll result". BBC News. 8 June 2009. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  17. [17]
    "The 2004 European Election". www.ark.ac.uk.
  18. [18]
    "Democracy Live Brian Simpson MEP". BBC. Archived from the original on 22 May 2014. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
  19. [19]
    "MEP profiles - Jacqueline Foster". European Parliament. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  20. [20]
    "Conservative MEPs salute Lord Bethell on his retirement as an MEP & welcome his successor, Ian Twinn". Archived from the original on 19 July 2008. Retrieved 4 July 2010.
  21. [21]
    "Leaders meet MPs over EU results". BBC News. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
  22. [22]
    "Kilroy-Silk wants UKIP leadership", Daily Telegraph, 3 October 2004
  23. [23]
    "Kilroy quits UKIP group of MEPs". BBC News. 27 October 2004.
  24. [24]
    Tempest, Matthew (7 October 2004). "Kilroy resigns Ukip whip". The Guardian.
  25. [25]
    "Kilroy-Silk quits shameful UKIP". BBC News. 21 January 2005.
  26. [26]
    "UKIP on the London Assembly? What Farage and the Politics Show didn't say…". MayorWatch. 23 March 2011.

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