Somerset and North Devon (European Parliament constituency)

Somerset and North Devon
European Parliament constituency

Member state United Kingdom
Created 1994
Dissolved 1999
MEPs 1
Sources

Somerset and North Devon was a European Parliament constituency covering all of Somerset in England, plus northern Devon and south-western Avon. With Cornwall and West Plymouth, it was one of the first two seats to elect a Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament.

Prior to its uniform adoption of proportional representation in 1999, the United Kingdom used first-past-the-post for the European elections in England, Scotland and Wales. The European Parliament constituencies used under that system were smaller than the later regional constituencies and only had one Member of the European Parliament each.

The constituency consisted of the Westminster Parliament constituencies of Bridgwater, North Devon, Somerton and Frome, Taunton, Wells, Weston-super-Mare and Yeovil.[1]

The constituency replaced most of Somerset and West Dorset and parts of Devon. It became part of the much larger South West England constituency in 1999.

Members of the European Parliament

Elected Name Party
1994 Graham Watson Liberal Democrat

Results

European Parliament election, 1994: Somerset and North Devon[2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democrat Graham Watson 106,187 43.6 N/A
Conservative Margaret Daly 83,678 34.3 N/A
Labour John Pilgrim 34,540 14.2 N/A
Green David Taylor 10,870 4.5 N/A
New Britain Graham Livings 7,165 2.9 N/A
Natural Law M. Lucas 1,200 0.5 N/A
Majority 22,509 9.3 N/A
Turnout 47.1 N/A
New creation: Liberal Democrat gain. Swing N/A

References

External links