2014 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom

2014 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom

← 2009 22 May 2014 2019 →

All 73 United Kingdom seats to the European Parliament
Turnout35.6% Increase 0.9%
  First party Second party Third party
  Nigel Farage
Leader Nigel Farage Glenis Willmott Syed Kamall
Party UKIP Labour Conservative
Alliance EFDD S&D ECR
Leader since 5 November 2010 18 January 2009 19 November 2013
Leader's seat South East England East Midlands London
Last election 13 seats, 16.0% 13 seats, 15.2% 26 seats, 27.4%
Seats won 24 20 19
Seat change Increase11 Increase7 Decrease7
Popular vote 4,376,635 4,020,646 3,792,549
Percentage 26.6% 24.4% 23.1%
Swing Increase10.6% Increase9.2% Decrease4.3%

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
  Caroline Lucas Nick Clegg Alex Salmond
Leader Caroline Lucas Nick Clegg Alex Salmond
Party Green Liberal Democrats SNP
Alliance Green Alliance of Liberals and Democrats European Free Alliance
Leader since 5 September 2008 18 December 2007 3 September 2004
Leader's seat South East England N/A N/A
Last election 2 seats, 2.8% 11 seats, 13.3% 2 seats, 2.1%
Seats before 2 11 2
Seats won 3 1 2
Seat change Increase1 Decrease10 Steady
Popular vote 1,136,670 1,087,633 389,503
Percentage 6.9 6.6 2.3
Swing Decrease0.9% Decrease6.7% Increase0.3

Map of the 2014 European Parliamentary Election in the United Kingdom


Leader of Largest Party before election

David Cameron
Conservative

Subsequent Leader of Largest Party

Nigel Farage
UKIP

The 2014 European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's component of the 2014 European Parliament election, held on Thursday 22 May 2014, coinciding with the 2014 local elections in England and Northern Ireland. In total, 73 Members of the European Parliament were elected from the United Kingdom using proportional representation. England, Scotland and Wales use a closed-list party list system of PR (with the D'Hondt method), while Northern Ireland used the single transferable vote (STV).

Most of the election results were announced after 10pm on Sunday 25 May – with the exception of Scotland, which did not declare its results until the following day – after voting closed throughout the 28 member states of the European Union.

The most successful party overall was the UK Independence Party (UKIP) which won 24 seats and 27% of the popular vote, the first time a political party other than the Labour Party or Conservative Party had won the popular vote at a British election since the 1906 general election. It was also the first time a party other than Labour or Conservative had won the largest number of seats in a national election since the December 1910 general election. In addition, the 23.1% of the vote won by the Conservatives was the lowest recorded voteshare for the party in a national election until 2019.

The Labour Party became the first Official Opposition party since 1984 to fail to win a European Parliament election, although it did gain 7 seats, taking its overall tally to 20. The governing Conservative Party was pushed into third place for the first time at any European Parliament election, falling to 19 seats, while the Green Party of England and Wales saw its number of MEPs increase for the first time since 1999, winning 3 seats. In Scotland, the Scottish National Party won the largest share of the vote, taking 29% of the vote and 2 MEPs. The Liberal Democrats, who were in government in the UK with the Conservatives at the time, lost 10 of the 11 seats they were defending, and won just 7% of the popular vote.

Figures released in December 2014 showed that the Conservatives and UKIP each spent £2.96m on the campaign, the Liberal Democrats £1.5m, and the Labour Party approximately £1m.

Voting system and regional representation

Polling station in Gosberton in Lincolnshire within the East Midlands constituency on 22 May 2014

The United Kingdom elected 73 Members of the European Parliament using proportional representation. The United Kingdom was divided into twelve multi-member constituencies. The eleven of these regions which form Great Britain used a closed-list party list system method of proportional representation, calculated using the D'Hondt method. Northern Ireland used the Single transferable vote (STV). As a result of the Treaty of Lisbon coming into force, the UK became entitled to a 73rd MEP as from November 2011. The Electoral Commission performed a reallocation in keeping with the same procedures it used to allocate 72 MEPs; an extra Conservative MEP was allocated to the West Midlands constituency, based on the 2009 vote, and was enshrined in the European Union Act 2011 as an amendment of the European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002.[citation needed]

Representation by region
Electoral region 2009
election
2014
election
+/-
East Midlands 5 5 Steady
East of England 7 7 Steady
London 8 8 Steady
North East England 3 3 Steady
North West England 8 8 Steady
South East England 10 10 Steady
South West England1 6 6 Steady
West Midlands 6 7 Increase1
Yorkshire and the Humber 6 6 Steady
Wales 4 4 Steady
Scotland 6 6 Steady
Northern Ireland 3 3 Steady

1 Includes Gibraltar, the only British Overseas Territory which was part of the European Union.

Returning officers

The European Parliamentary Elections (Returning Officers) Order 2013 provides for the designated Returning officer for each electoral region to be the council official responsible for elections in each of the following Westminster constituencies: Kettering for the East Midlands, Chelmsford for the Eastern region, Lewisham, Deptford for the London region, Sunderland Central for the North East region, Manchester Central for the North West region, Falkirk for Scotland, Southampton, Test for the South East region, Poole for the South West region, Preseli Pembrokeshire for Wales, Birmingham Ladywood for the West Midlands region, Leeds Central for the Yorkshire and Humber region, and Belfast South for the Northern Ireland Region.

MEPs before the 2014 election, by European Parliament group

Between the 2009 and 2014 elections, there were various changes to the breakdown of UK members. In December 2011, a 73rd member from the UK (Anthea McIntyre, Conservative) was allocated to England because of the implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon. There were also various defections:

The Ulster Conservatives and Unionists - New Force (UCUNF) electoral pact between the Conservatives and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) was dissolved.

Thus, before the 2014 election, the following parties had MEPs representing UK constituencies:

Parties in the European Parliament (UK) before the 2014 election Archived 3 January 2019 at the Wayback Machine
United Kingdom party Seats/73 European Parliament group Seats/766
Conservative 26 European Conservatives and Reformists 52
UUP 1
Labour 13 Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats 195
Liberal Democrats 12 Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe 75
UKIP 9 Europe of Freedom and Democracy 31
Independent 1
Green 2 Greens–European Free Alliance 52
Scottish National 2
Plaid Cymru 1
Sinn Féin 1 European United Left–Nordic Green Left 35
Democratic Unionist 1 Non-Inscrits
British Democratic 1
British National 1
We Demand a Referendum 1
An Independence from Europe 1

Parties and candidates

39 parties stood a total of 747 candidates. The Conservative Party and UKIP had candidates in every region, as did the three Green parties. Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the BNP had a full slate of candidates in all the regions in Great Britain (i.e. excluding Northern Ireland). The English Democrats and An Independence from Europe had a full slate of candidates in all the English regions. No2EU had a full slate in seven regions, while Britain First and the Socialist Party of Great Britain had full slates in two regions each. The Harmony Party stood in four regions and the Christian Peoples Alliance in three regions. Other parties only stood in one region.

Retiring/resigned incumbents

British Democratic Party

(Elected in 2009 as British National Party)

Conservative

Green

Labour

Liberal Democrats

UKIP

Debates

On 20 February, the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg used his weekly phone-in show on LBC 97.3 to challenge the leader of the UK Independence Party, Nigel Farage, to a live public debate on the UK's membership of the European Union. Clegg said, "he is the leader of the party of 'out'; I am the leader of the party of 'in'. I think it's time we now have a proper, public debate so that the public can listen to the two sides of the argument and judge from themselves." Farage accepted, but said he would also like to see Ed Miliband and David Cameron participate.

The first hour-long debate between the two men was held on 26 March 2014 and was broadcast live on television by Sky News and on the BBC News Channel. The debate was hosted by LBC and moderated by Nick Ferrari. After the first debate, a YouGov poll asked "Who performed better?", with 57% saying Farage did better compared to 36% for Clegg.

The second debate was held on BBC Two on 2 April in a special programme called The European Union: In or Out, moderated by David Dimbleby. Farage was again seen as outperforming his rival, with a snap poll by YouGov showing 68% of people thought he did better in the debate compared to 27% for Clegg. A snap Guardian poll also showed that 69% thought Farage won the debate.

Despite David Cameron and Ed Miliband declining to participate in the leaders' debates, the Conservative and Labour parties were represented in a lower-profile debate on the BBC. On 13 February Andrew Neil hosted a four-way debate on the BBC's Sunday Politics programme. The Conservatives were represented by Syed Kamall MEP, Labour by Richard Howitt MEP, the Liberal Democrats by Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP and the UK Independence Party by Patrick O'Flynn, the party's Director of communications and an MEP candidate.

Opinion polls

Graphical summary

Graph of opinion polls conducted. Trend lines represent local regressions and the grey areas represent uncertainty about the trendlines and not those of the results.

These opinion polls are for Great Britain and generally exclude Northern Ireland. The methodology used for these polls broadly corresponds to that used for opinion polling for the next United Kingdom general election; see that article for the methodology used by each polling company. YouGov have experimented with different methods of polling for these elections, using their own method for their 8–9 January 2013 poll and another corresponding to that used by Survation and ComRes for their 10–11 January 2013 poll (both below) and argue that their method gives more accurate answers. Data for these polls are generally gathered at the same time as the data for General Election polling.

2014

Date(s) Polling organisation/client Sample Con UKIP Lab Lib Dems Others Lead
22 May 2014 EU election, 2014 (GB) Results 16,017,366 23.9% 27.5% 25.4% 6.9% 16.3% 2.1%
20–21 May YouGov/The Sun 6,124 22% 27% 26% 9% 16% 1%
19–21 May Opinium/Daily Mail 1,967 21% 32% 25% 6% 16% 7%
19–20 May Survation/Mirror 1,106 23% 32% 27% 9% 11% 5%
19–20 May YouGov/The Sun 1,874 23% 27% 27% 10% 14% Tied
18–19 May YouGov/The Sun 1,740 21% 24% 28% 10% 17% 4%
15–19 May TNS Archived 4 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine 1,217 21% 31% 28% 7% 13% 3%
16–18 May ComRes[permanent dead link] 2,061 20% 33% 27% 7% 13% 6%
15–16 May YouGov/Sunday Times 1,892 23% 26% 27% 9% 14% 1%
13–16 May Opinium/Daily Mail 2,036 20% 31% 29% 5% 15% 2%
14–15 May ICM/Sunday Telegraph 2,033 26% 25% 29% 7% 13% 3%
14–15 May ComRes 2,045 20% 35% 24% 6% 15% 11%
13–14 May YouGov/The Sun 1,968 22% 25% 28% 10% 15% 3%
9–12 May Opinium 1,936 22% 30% 28% 7% 13% 2%
9–11 May ICM/The Guardian 1,000 27% 26% 24% 7% 16% 1%
9–11 May ComRes/C4M 2,056 22% 34% 24% 8% 12% 10%
9 May Survation/Mail on Sunday 1,005 21% 32% 28% 9% 11% 4%
6–8 May Opinium/Daily Mail 1,972 23% 28% 27% 8% 14% 1%
28 Apr – 6 May YouGov/Sky News 1,933 23% 31% 25% 9% 14% 6%
2–3 May Survation/Mirror 1,005 24% 31% 28% 7% 10% 3%
1–2 May YouGov/Sunday Times 1,945 22% 29% 28% 7% 14% 1%
30 Apr – 1 May YouGov/Sun on Sunday 1,844 23% 29% 26% 10% 12% 3%
30 Apr – 1 May YouGov/The Sun 1,813 22% 27% 30% 9% 13% 3%
27–30 Apr YouGov/The Sun 5,331 22% 28% 29% 9% 13% 1%
24–28 Apr TNS Archived 28 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine 1,199 18% 36% 27% 10% 12% 9%
25–27 Apr ComRes[permanent dead link] 2,052 18% 38% 27% 8% 14% 11%
24–25 Apr YouGov/Sunday Times 1,835 19% 31% 28% 9% 13% 3%
21–22 Apr YouGov/The Sun 2,190 22% 27% 30% 10% 11% 3%
15–17 Apr ICM/Sunday Telegraph 2,000 22% 27% 30% 8% 13% 3%
11–13 Apr ICM/The Guardian 1,000 25% 20% 36% 6% 13% 11%
3–7 Apr TNS Archived 13 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine 1,193 21% 29% 30% 9% 11% 1%
4–6 Apr Populus/Financial Times 2,034 27% 25% 31% 10% 7% 4%
3–4 Apr YouGov/Sunday Times 1,998 22% 28% 30% 9% 10% 2%
4 Apr Survation/Mail on Sunday 1,001 21% 27% 34% 9% 9% 7%
2–3 Apr ComRes/The People 2,067 22% 30% 30% 8% 10% Tied
2 Apr Broadcast of The European Union: In or Out debate.
27–28 Mar YouGov/The Sunday Times 1,916 24% 23% 32% 11% 10% 8%
26–27 Mar YouGov/The Sun 2,039 24% 26% 28% 11% 11% 2%
26 Mar LBC radio debate on the European Union between the Lib Dems' Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage of UKIP.
20–21 Mar Survation/Mail on Sunday 1,000 28% 23% 32% 7% 10% 4%
17–18 Mar YouGov/Times 2,284 24% 23% 32% 10% 11% 8%
12–13 Mar ComRes/Independent on Sunday 2,001 21% 30% 28% 8% 13% 2%
7–9 Feb ICM/The Guardian 1,002 25% 20% 35% 9% 11% 10%
14–15 Jan YouGov/The Sun 1,893 23% 26% 32% 9% 10% 6%
3 Jan Survation/Mail on Sunday 1,001 23% 26% 32% 9% 10% 6%

2013

Date(s) Polling organisation/client Sample Con UKIP Lab Lib Dems Others Lead
21–22 Nov Survation/Daily Star 1,006 24% 25% 32% 8% 12% 7%
11 Oct Survation/Mail on Sunday 1,017 21% 22% 35% 11% 11% 13%
22–24 May ComRes/Open Europe 2,003 21% 27% 23% 18% 11% 4%
17–18 May Survation/Mail on Sunday 1,000 20% 30% 31% 8% 11% 1%
17–18 Jan YouGov/The Sun 1,912 30% 12% 38% 13% 10% 8%
10–11 Jan YouGov/The Sun 1,995 24% 19% 36% 12% 10% 12%
9–10 Jan ComRes/Sunday People 2,002 22% 23% 35% 8% 12% 12%
8–9 Jan YouGov/The Sun 1,980 27% 17% 38% 12% 6% 11%
5 Jan Survation/Mail on Sunday 772 24% 22% 31% 11% 12% 7%
4 Jun 2009 EU election, 2009 (GB) Results 15,136,932 27.7% 16.5% 15.7% 13.7% 25.6% 11.2%

Scottish polls

Date(s) Polling organisation/client Sample SNP Lab Con Lib Dems UKIP Others Lead
22 May 2014 EU election, 2014 (Scotland) 1,343,483 29.0% 25.9% 17.2% 7.1% 10.5% 10.4% 3.1%
12–15 May 2014 ICM/Scotsman 1,003 36% 27% 13% 7% 9% 8% 9%
9–12 May 2014 Survation/Daily Record 1,003 37% 26% 13% 6% 11% 7% 11%
11–22 Apr 2014 YouGov/Edinburgh University 1,014 33% 31% 12% 7% 10% 7% 2%
14–16 Apr 2014 ICM/Scotland on Sunday 1,004 37% 28% 11% 7% 10% 6% 9%
4–7 Apr 2014 Survation/Daily Record 1,002 39% 30% 14% 6% 7% 5% 9%
17–21 Mar 2014 ICM/Scotsman 1,010 41% 29% 13% 5% 6% 6% 12%
21–24 Jan 2014 ICM/Scotsman 1,010 43% 24% 14% 6% 7% 6% 19%
4 Jun 2009 EU election, 2009 (Scotland) 1,104,512 29.1% 20.8% 16.8% 11.5% 5.2% 16.6% 8.3%

Welsh polls

Date(s) Polling organisation/client Sample Con Lab Plaid UKIP Lib Dems Others Lead
22 May 2014 EU election, 2014 (Wales) Results 733,060 17.4% 28.2% 15.3% 27.6% 4.0% 7.7% 0.6%
12–14 May 2014 YouGov/ITV 1,092 16% 33% 15% 23% 7% 7% 10%
11–22 Apr 2014 YouGov/Cardiff University 1,027 18% 39% 11% 20% 7% 6% 19%
10–12 Feb 2014 YouGov/ITV 1,250 17% 39% 12% 18% 7% 7% 21%
2–4 Dec 2013 YouGov/ITV 1,001 20% 41% 13% 13% 8% 5% 21%
4 Jun 2009 EU election, 2009 (Wales) Results 684,520 21.2% 20.3% 18.5% 12.8% 10.7% 16.6% 0.9%

London polls

Date(s) Polling organisation/client Sample Con Lab Lib Dems Green UKIP Others Lead
22 May 2014 EU election, 2014 (London) Results 2,200,475 22.5% 36.7% 6.7% 8.9% 16.9% 8.3% 14.2%
6–8 May 2014 YouGov/Evening Standard 1,422 23% 37% 9% 7% 21% 3% 14%
28–29 Apr 2014 Survation 1,001 21% 39% 13% 7% 20% 1% 18%
7–9 Apr 2014 YouGov/Evening Standard 1,209 25% 33% 11% 5% 24% 3% 8%
8–10 Oct 2013 YouGov/Evening Standard 1,231 23% 34% 10% 9% 22% 1% 11%
4 Jun 2009 EU election, 2009 (London) Results 1,751,026 27.4% 21.3% 13.7% 10.9% 10.8% 15.9% 6.1%

Results

United Kingdom results

Map of highest polling party in each council area (results for Northern Ireland per council area are not available):
 SNP
Results of the 2014 European Parliament election for the United Kingdom
Party Votes Seats
Number % +/- Seats +/- %
UK Independence Party 4,376,635 26.6 Increase10.6 24 Increase11 32.9
Labour Party 4,020,646 24.4 Increase9.2 20 Increase7 27.4
Conservative Party 3,792,549 23.1 Decrease3.8 19 Decrease7 26.0
Green Party of England and Wales 1,136,670 6.9 Decrease0.9 3 Increase1 4.1
Liberal Democrats 1,087,633 6.6 Decrease6.7 1 Decrease10 1.4
Scottish National Party 389,503 2.4 Increase0.3 2 Steady 2.7
An Independence from Europe 235,124 1.4 New 0 Steady
British National Party 179,694 1.1 Decrease5.0 0 Decrease2
Sinn Féin 159,813 1.0 Increase0.2 1 Steady 1.4
DUP 131,163 0.8 Increase0.2 1 Steady 1.4
English Democrats 126,024 0.8 Decrease1.0 0 Steady
Plaid Cymru 111,864 0.7 Decrease0.1 1 Steady 1.4
Scottish Greens 108,305 0.7 Increase0.1 0 Steady
Ulster Unionist Party 83,438 0.5 New 1 Increase1 1.4
SDLP 81,594 0.5 Steady 0 Steady
TUV 75,806 0.5 Steady 0 Steady
Christian Peoples Alliance 50,222 0.3 Decrease1.3 0 Steady
Alliance 44,432 0.3 Increase0.1 0 Steady
No2EU 31,757 0.2 Decrease0.8 0 Steady
4 Freedoms Party (UK EPP) 28,014 0.2 New 0 Steady
We Demand a Referendum Now 23,426 0.1 New 0 Steady
NHA 23,253 0.1 New 0 Steady
Animal Welfare Party 21,092 0.1 Steady 0 Steady
Britain First 20,272 0.1 New 0 Steady
Yorkshire First 19,017 0.1 New 0 Steady
Europeans Party 10,712 0.1 New 0 Steady
Green (NI) 10,598 0.1 Steady 0 Steady
NI21 10,553 0.1 New 0 Steady
Peace Party 10,130 0.1 Steady 0 Steady
Others 55,011 0.3 Decrease3.4 0 Steady
Valid Votes 16,454,950 99.5 73 Increase1
Rejected Votes 90,812 0.6
Overall turnout 16,545,762 35.6 Increase0.9

Election results by constituency

Constituency Members
East Midlands  
East of England  
London  
North East England  
North West England  
South East England
South West England  
West Midlands  
Yorkshire and the Humber  
Scotland  
Wales  
Northern Ireland        

MEPs defeated

Conservative

Liberal Democrats

British National Party

An Independence from Europe

We Demand a Referendum

Analysis

The UK Independence Party (UKIP) came top of the poll, the first time a political party other than the Labour Party or Conservative Party had won the popular vote at a British election since the 1906 general election. It was also the first time a party other than Labour or Conservative had won the largest number of seats in a national election since the December 1910 general election. However, by the end of 2018, following multiple departures and other changes, only 9 MEPs remained affiliated to UKIP. By February 2019, there were only 7 UKIP MEPs, while 7 former UKIP MEPs had joined the new Brexit Party.

The Labour Party became the first Official Opposition party since 1984 to fail to win a European Parliament election, although it did gain 7 seats, taking its overall tally to 20. It concurrently won the largest share of the vote in 100 council areas, with its largest vote share recorded in Newham at 58.4%.

The governing Conservative Party was pushed into third place for the first time at any European Parliament election, winning just 23.3% of the national vote share and losing 7 seats to fall to 19 overall, one behind Labour. It won the largest share of the vote in just 89 council areas and its highest vote was recorded in Elmbridge at 43.1%.

The Green Party of England and Wales saw its number of MEPs increase for the first time since 1999, winning a total of 3 seats. The party rose from fifth place to fourth, although its vote share declined slightly compared to 2009. This was the first time since 1989 that the Greens had outpolled the Liberal Democrats in a European election.

In Scotland, the Scottish National Party won the largest share of the vote taking 28.9% of the vote and retained its two of the six Scottish seats.

The Liberal Democrats, who were in coalition with the Conservatives at the time, lost ten of the eleven seats they were defending and won just 6.9% of the vote share nationally. Their highest vote share was recorded in Gibraltar, where they won a 67.2% share of the vote.

See also


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