European Parliament election, 1994 (United Kingdom)

United Kingdom European Parliament election, 1994

9 June 1994
87 seats to the European Parliament
First party Second party Third party   150x150px 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 17 13 2 Popular vote 6,753,863 4,254,114 2,552,730 Percentage 44 28 17 Swing 8% 7% 11%
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.

• 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

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

• Peter Beazley (Bedfordshire South)
• Sir Fred Catherwood (Cambridgeshire & Bedfordshire North)
• Derek Prag (Hertfordshire)
• Madron Seligman (Sussex West)

Labour

• Janey Buchan (Glasgow)
• Geoff Hoon (Derbyshire)

MEPs Defeated

Labour

• John Bird (Midlands West)
• Henry McCubbin (North East Scotland)

Conservative

• Christopher Beazley (Cornwall and Plymouth)
• Nicholas Bethell, 4th Baron Bethell (London North West)
• Margaret Daly (Somerset and North Devon)
• Paul Howell (Norfolk)
• Christopher Jackson (Kent East)
• Bill Newton Dunn (Lincolnshire)
• Ben Patterson (Kent West)
• Peter Price (London South East)
• Christopher Prout (Herefordshire and Shropshire)
• Patricia Rawlings (Essex West and Hertfordshire East)
• Amédée Turner (Sussex)
• Michael Welsh (Central Lancashire)
• Richard Fletcher-Vane, 2nd Baron Inglewood (Cumbria and Lancashire North)

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