European Parliament election, 2004 (United Kingdom)
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The European Parliament election, 2004 was the UK part of the European Parliament election, 2004. It was held on 10 June. It was the first European election to be held in the United Kingdom using postal-only voting in four areas. It coincided with local and regional elections.
The Conservative Party and the Labour Party both polled poorly. The Conservatives, although getting a vote share 4.1% greater than Labour, still 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 the United Kingdom Independence Party.
The United Kingdom Independence Party did exceptionally well, and managed to increase its number of MEPs from 3 to 12, pushing the Liberal Democrats into fourth place. UKIP received a very large increase in media coverage before the elections, partly because of the appointment of Robert Kilroy-Silk as a candidate. The actress Joan Collins also became a member and announced her support for the party.
Other minor parties also posted vote gains.
In Northern Ireland, as expected, Sinn Féin beat the SDLP in the polls and took its first Northern Ireland seat. This coincided with its winning a seat in the corresponding elections in the Republic.
Gibraltar voted for the first time, as part of the South West England region. The Conservative Party won overwhelming support there on a higher than average turnout. For full results, see European Parliament Election, 2004 (Gibraltar).
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[edit] England, Scotland and Wales
- Turnout for all the regions was 37.6% on an electorate of 45,309,760.
Source: BBC
| Party | Votes | % | Change | Seats | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 4,397,090 | 26.7 | -9.0 | 27 | -8 | |
| Labour | 3,718,683 | 22.6 | -5.4 | 19 | -6 | |
| UK Independence | 2,650,768 | 16.1 | +9.2 | 12 | +10 | |
| Liberal Democrat | 2,452,327 | 14.9 | +2.3 | 12 | +2 | |
| Green | 1,033,093 | 6.3 | 0.0 | 2 | 0 | |
| British National Party | 808,200 | 4.9 | +3.9 | 0 | 0 | |
| Respect | 252,252 | 1.5 | +1.5 | 0 | 0 | |
| Scottish National Party | 231,505 | 1.4 | -1.3 | 2 | 0 | |
| Plaid Cymru | 159,888 | 1.0 | -0.9 | 1 | 0 | |
| English Democrats | 130,056 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Liberal | 96,325 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Scottish Green | 79,695 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Scottish Socialist | 61,356 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Christian Peoples | 56,771 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Senior Citizens | 42,861 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Countryside Party | 42,107 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Pensioners | 33,501 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Christian Vote | 21,056 | 0 | 0 | |||
| ProLife Alliance | 20,393 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Forward Wales | 17,280 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Alliance for Green Socialism | 13,776 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Peace | 12,572 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Total | 17,028,947 | |||||
- All parties with over 10,000 votes listed.
[edit] Northern Ireland
| European Parliament election 2004: Northern Ireland [1] | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate(s) | Seats | Loss/Gain | First Preference Votes | ||
| Number | % of vote | |||||
| Democratic Unionist Party | Jim Allister | 1 | 0 | 175,761 | 31.9 | |
| Sinn Féin | Bairbre de Brun | 1 | +1 | 144,541 | 26.3 | |
| Ulster Unionist | Jim Nicholson | 1 | 0 | 91,164 | 16.6 | |
| Social Democratic and Labour | Martin Morgan | 0 | -1 | 87,559 | 15.9 | |
| Independent | John Gilliland | 0 | 0 | 36,270 | 6.6 | |
| Socialist Environmental | Eamon McCann | 0 | 0 | 9,172 | 1.6 | |
| Green Party | Lindsay Whitcroft | 0 | 0 | 4,810 | 0.9 | |
| Turnout | 51.7 | |||||
[edit] By constituency
See pages for individual constituencies.
[edit] Party Leaders in June 2004
- Conservative - Michael Howard
- Labour - Tony Blair
- Liberal Democrat - Charles Kennedy
- UK Independence Party - Roger Knapman
- Green Party Principal Speakers - Caroline Lucas and Mike Woodin
- Scottish National Party - John Swinney
- Plaid Cymru - Dafydd Iwan and Ieuan Wyn Jones
- British National Party - Nick Griffin
- Democratic Unionist Party - Ian Paisley
- Social Democratic and Labour Party - Mark Durkan
- Ulster Unionist Party - David Trimble
- Sinn Féin - Gerry Adams
[edit] See also
- Members of the European Parliament for the United Kingdom 2004-2009 (alphabetic order, can be sorted by constituency, party or party group)
[edit] References
- ^ The 2004 European Election, Northern Ireland Elections
[edit] External links
[edit] Source
[edit] Other guides
- European Election News by European Election Law Association (Eurela)
- Guide and results at the UK Office of the European Parliament
- Guide and links Richard Kimber's at Political Science Resources
[edit] Manifestos and documents
- Guardian (newspaper): incomplete collection of manifestos
- Conservative manifesto (ED)
- European Greens manifesto; Successes of the Greens in the European Parliament; A Green Contract for Europe; European Election Manifesto: Green Party of England and Wales Manifesto: Northern Ireland (EGP)
- Labour document (PES)
- Liberal Democrat manifesto (ELDR)
- UK Independence Party manifesto (EDD)
Northern Ireland only:
- Democratic Unionist Party manifesto (NI - non-attached)
- Sinn Féin
- Social Democratic and Labour Party manifesto (PES)
- Socialist Environmental Alliance manifesto
- Ulster Unionist Party manifesto European manifesto (ED)
Scotland only:
Wales only:
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