European Parliament election, 1994 (United Kingdom)

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 get the lowest turnout in Europe. This was the first European election contested by the 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. 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

England, Scotland and Wales

Sources: *UK Office of the European Parliament *United Kingdom election results

Note: Percentages are approximate

Total votes cast - 15,292,722. All parties with more than 3,000 votes shown.

Northern Ireland

Source: Northern Ireland Social and Political Archive

Total votes cast - 559,867.

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

See also

• Elections in the United Kingdom: European elections
• MEPs for the UK 1994 - 1999