European Parliament election, 1994 (United Kingdom)

United Kingdom European Parliament election, 1994
United Kingdom
9 June 1994
87 seats to the European Parliament
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Margaret Beckett John Major Paddy Ashdown
Party Labour Conservative Liberal Democrat
Alliance PES EPP ELDR
Leader since 12 May 1994 (acting) 28 November 1990 16 July 1988
Last election 45 seats, 37% 32 seats, 35% 0 seats, 6%
Seats won 62 18 2
Seat change Increase17 Decrease13 Increase2
Popular vote 6,753,863 4,254,114 2,552,730
Percentage 44 28 17
Swing Increase8% Decrease7% Increase11%
Leader of Largest Party before election

Margaret Beckett
Labour

 Subsequent Leader of Largest Party

Margaret Beckett
Labour

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.

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

Labour

MEPs Defeated

Labour

Conservative


Party Leaders on 5 June 1994

See also

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