European Parliament election, 1999 (United Kingdom)

The European Parliament Election, 1999 was the UK part of the European Parliament election 1999. It was held on 10 June. It was the first European election to be held in the United Kingdom using a system of proportional representation. The European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999 introduced the Party List system, using a Closed list. Single Transferable Vote was retained in Northern Ireland. The Act also introduced the new twelve electoral regions. The turnout was again the lowest in Europe, the lowest ever for a European election in the UK.

The Conservatives doubled the number of seats from last European election. Labour saw their 62 seats reduced to just 29. The Liberal Democrats saw their number of seats increase to 10 from just 2 in the previous election. The UK Independence Party, Green Party and Plaid Cymru won their first ever seats in the European Parliament. These changes are largely due to the move from proportional representation from first past the post, introduced by the European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999.

• Overall (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) turnout: 23.3% (EU average: 49.5%)
• Overall votes cast: 10,681,082

England, Scotland and Wales

Source : UK Office of the European Parliament

Note: Percentages are approximate

All parties with more than 50,000 votes shown

Total votes cast - 10,002,273.

Northern Ireland

Party Leaders in June 1999

• Conservative - William Hague
• Labour - Tony Blair
• Liberal Democrat - Paddy Ashdown
• UK Independence Party - Michael Holmes
• Green - Jean Lambert and Mike Woodin (Principal Speakers)
• SNP - Alex Salmond
• Plaid Cymru - Dafydd Wigley
• Pro-European Conservative Party - John Stevens
• BNP - John Tyndall

• DUP - Ian Paisley
• SDLP - John Hume
• UUP - David Trimble
• Sinn Féin - Gerry Adams

See also

• European Parliament election, 1999 - All EU states
• Elections in the United Kingdom: European elections
• Members of the European Parliament for the United Kingdom 1999–2004
• Members of the European Parliament for the United Kingdom 1999–2004 by region

References

External links

• Breakdown of results by Region
• House of Commons Research Paper 99/64 "Elections to the European Parliament – June 1999"