European Parliament election, 1994 (United Kingdom)
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87 seats to the European Parliament |
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The European Parliament Election, 1994 was the fourth European election to be held in the United Kingdom. It was held on 9 June, though, as usual, the ballots were not counted until the evening of 12 June. The electoral system was, for the final European election, first past the post in England, Scotland and Wales and single transferable vote in Northern Ireland. This was the first election with 87 MEPs, the European Parliamentary Elections Act 1993 increased the number of seats for the UK from 81. For the first time, the UK did not have the lowest turnout in Europe. Turnout was lower in the Netherlands and Portugal.
This was the first European election contested by the recently formed United Kingdom Independence Party and the first European election in which the Liberal Democrats won seats. The Conservatives' performance in the election was very poor, losing a further 14 seats, taking their number of seats down to 18, which was 42 fewer seats than in the 1979 election, the year they defeated the Labour Party in the 1979 General Election. This reflected the general unpopularity of the Major government at the time.
Labour was under the interim leadership of Margaret Beckett following the sudden death of leader John Smith the previous month.
The Green Party was unable to build on its highly successful performance of the previous election, losing more than three-quarters of its votes.
Richard Huggett, standing as a "Literal Democrat", gained over 10,000 votes in the Devon and East Plymouth constituency and almost certainly prevented the Liberal Democrats from gaining a third seat from the Conservative Party.
- Overall (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) turnout: 36.8% (EU average: 57%)
- Overall votes cast: 15,852,589
Contents
England, Scotland and Wales
Sources: *UK Office of the European Parliament *United Kingdom election results
Note: Percentages are approximate
Party | Votes | Seats | Loss/Gain | Share of Vote (%) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | 6,753,863 | 62 | +17 | 44 | |
Conservative | 4,248,531 | 18 | -13 | 28 | |
Liberal Democrat | 2,552,730 | 2 | +2 | 17 | |
Green | 494,561 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
SNP | 487,239 | 2 | +1 | 3 | |
Plaid Cymru | 162,478 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
Independent | 151,858 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
UKIP | 150,251 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
Liberal | 100,500 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
Natural Law | 96,554 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
National Front | 12,469 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Moderate Labour | 12,113 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Independent Democrat | 10,203 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Monster Raving Loony | 7,798 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Independent Conservative | 5,847 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Independent Socialist | 5,071 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Communist | 4,323 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Mebyon Kernow | 3,315 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Total votes cast - 15,292,722. All parties with more than 3,000 votes shown.
Northern Ireland
Source: Northern Ireland Social and Political Archive
Party | Candidate(s) | Seats | Loss/Gain | First Preference Votes | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number | % of vote | ||||||
DUP | Ian Paisley | 1 | 0 | 163,246 | 29.2 | ||
SDLP | John Hume | 1 | 0 | 161,992 | 28.9 | ||
UUP | Jim Nicholson | 1 | 0 | 133,459 | 23.8 | ||
Sinn Féin | Tom Hartley, Dodie McGuinness, Francie Molloy |
0 | 0 | 55,215 | 9.9 | ||
Alliance | Mary Clark-Glass | 0 | 0 | 23,157 | 4.1 | ||
Ulster Independence | Hugh Ross | 0 | 0 | 7,858 | 1.4 | ||
Conservative | Myrtle Boal | 0 | 0 | 5,583 | 1.0 | ||
Workers' Party | John Lowry | 0 | 0 | 2,543 | 0.5 | ||
Labour Party NI | Niall Cusack | 0 | 0 | 2,464 | 0.4 | ||
Natural Law | James Anderson, Susannah Thompson, Michael Kennedy |
0 | 0 | 2,291 | 0.4 | ||
Peace Coalition | June Campion | 0 | 0 | 1,088 | 0.2 | ||
Independent Ulster | David Kerr | 0 | 0 | 579 | 0.1 | ||
Constitutional Independent NI | Robert Mooney | 0 | 0 | 400 | 0.1 |
Total votes cast - 559,867.
MEPs Retiring
Conservative
- Peter Beazley (Bedfordshire South)
- Sir Fred Catherwood (Cambridgeshire & Bedfordshire North)
- Derek Prag (Hertfordshire)
- Madron Seligman (Sussex West)
Labour
MEPs Defeated
Labour
Conservative
- Christopher Beazley (Cornwall and Plymouth)
- Nicholas Bethell, 4th Baron Bethell (London North West)
- Margaret Daly (Somerset and North Devon)
- Paul Howell (Norfolk)
- Christopher Jackson (Kent East)
- Bill Newton Dunn (Lincolnshire)
- Ben Patterson (Kent West)
- Peter Price (London South East)
- Christopher Prout (Herefordshire and Shropshire)
- Patricia Rawlings (Essex West and Hertfordshire East)
- Amédée Turner (Sussex)
- Michael Welsh (Central Lancashire)
- Richard Fletcher-Vane, 2nd Baron Inglewood (Cumbria and Lancashire North)
Party Leaders on 5 June 1994
- Labour - Margaret Beckett (As Deputy Leader assumed the leadership upon the death of leader - John Smith )
- Conservative - John Major
- Liberal Democrat - Paddy Ashdown
- Green - Jan Clark (Principal speaker)
- SNP - Alex Salmond
- Plaid Cymru - Dafydd Elis Thomas
- UK Independence Party - Alan Sked
- Liberal Party - Michael Meadowcroft
- DUP - Ian Paisley
- SDLP - John Hume
- UUP - James Molyneaux