European elections in the United Kingdom in 2009

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(Share of votes in%)

 %

30th

20th

10

0

27.7

16.5

15.7

13.7

8.6

6.2

2.1

9.3

Tories

UKIP

Labor

LibDem

Green ^e

BNP

SNP

Otherwise.

Gains and losses

compared to 2004

 % p

   4th

   2

   0

  -2

  -4

  -6

  -8th

+1.0

+0.3

-6.9

-1.2

+2.4

+1.3

+0.7

+2.2

Tories

UKIP

Labor

LibDem

Green ^e

BNP

SNP

Otherwise.

Remarks:

^e Green Party of England and Wales and Scottish Green Party

           

A total of 72 seats

• SF : 1
• Plaid : 1
• Labor : 13
• Green : 2
• SNP : 2
• LibDem : 11
• UUP : 1
• Tories : 25
• DUP : 1
• UKIP : 13
• BNP : 2

The European elections in the UK in 2009 took place on June 4, 2009, along with the UK local elections. It was part of the EU- wide European elections in 2009 , so the election results were not announced until Sunday, June 7, 2009, when the election in the other European countries was also over. In the United Kingdom , 72 of the 736 seats in the European Parliament were awarded. Should the enlargement of the Parliament foreseen in the Lisbon Treaty come into force during the 2009-14 legislative period, another British MEP will also join the Parliament. The polling stations were open between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m.

Electoral system

The election was based on proportional representation in twelve electoral districts, namely the nine regions of England and Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland . While the English, Scottish and Welsh constituencies use the D'Hondt procedure , Northern Ireland uses the single transferable voting procedure . In 2008, on a proposal from the Electoral Commission, the British Parliament determined the distribution of MPs among the constituencies. Accordingly, the East Midlands elected 5 MPs, East of England 7, London 8, North East England 3, North West England 8, South East England 10, South West England (including Gibraltar ) 6, Yorkshire and the Humber 6, the West Midlands 6 , Wales 4, Scotland 6 and Northern Ireland 3.

Campaigning parties

In addition to the parties that had already been represented in parliament since the 2004 European elections, numerous other parties took part in the election.

The following were already represented in Parliament from 2004-09:

• Conservative Party (27 seats, EPP-ED Group)
• Labor Party (19 seats, PES Group)
• Liberal Democrats (Lib-Dem, 12 seats, ALDE parliamentary group)
• UK Independence Party (UKIP, 12 seats, Ind / Dem group or non-attached)
• Green Party of England and Wales (Greens, 2 seats, Greens / EFA group, only in England and Wales)
• Scottish National Party (SNP, 2 seats, Greens / EFA parliamentary group, only in Scotland)
• Plaid Cymru (PC, 1 seat, Greens / EFA group, only in Wales)
• Sinn Féin (1 seat, GUE-NGL Group, Northern Ireland only)
• Ulster Unionist Party (UUP, 1 seat, EPP-ED Group, Northern Ireland only)

Of the other parties, only the far-right British National Party (BNP) and the British section of the Eurosceptic Libertas party , which was running for the first time, still had a certain chance of entering parliament.

It is unclear whether the Conservative Party will remain in the EPP-ED Group after the elections . Until 1992, the Conservatives had formed the European Democrats (ED), an independent group from the European People's Party (EPP), which, however, then united with it. However, the ED took a much more Eurosceptic course than the EPP. In 2005, David Cameron , who was later elected leader of the Conservative Party, called for resignation from the joint faction. This led to the establishment of the Movement for European Reform (MER) in 2006 by the Conservative Party and the Czech party ODS . This MER was supposed to become an independent European party with its own parliamentary group after the elections , but did not meet the necessary conditions until 2009. As a possible alternative (in addition to remaining in the EPP-ED group), a link between the British Conservatives and the smaller right-wing conservative Union for a Europe of Nations (UEN), possibly under a new name, was discussed.

The political run-up to the elections was marked by an expense affair uncovered by the Daily Telegraph in May 2009 , which affected all three major British parties (Labor, Conservatives and Lib-Dems). In the surveys, these then plummeted, in some cases significantly, so that various small parties are assigned prospects of increasing their number of seats. The Labor Party's poor poll ratings also contributed to a government crisis in which several ministers resigned in the days immediately following the election. The party also called for Prime Minister Gordon Brown to resign .

Constituencies

The election took place in 12 multi-person constituencies. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each formed a constituency. England was divided into 9 constituencies corresponding to the regions of England

Constituency	MPs 2004	MPs 2009	change
East Midlands	6th	5	−1
East of England	7th	7th	0
London	9	8th	−1
North East England	3	3	0
North West England	9	8th	−1
Northern Ireland	3	3	0
Scotland	7th	6th	−1
South East England	10	10	0
South West England 1	7th	6th	−1
Wales	4th	4th	0
West Midlands	7th	6th	−1
Yorkshire and the Humber	6th	6th	0
All in all	78	72	−6

¹ including Gibraltar

Overall result

Great Britain

UK constituency results: Conservative Party : 25 UKIP : 13 Labor : 13 Liberal Democrats : 11 Green Party of England and Wales : 2 SNP : 2 BNP : 2 Plaid Cymru : 1 DUP : 1 Sinn Féin : 1 UUP : 1












Party / organization	European party	EP Group	Voices 2009		Seats 2009	Difference 2009–2004
			number	%		be right	%	Seats (absolute)	Seats (relative)
Conservative party	- 1	EPP-ED 1	4,198,394	27.7	25th	−198,696	+1.0	−2	+1
UK Independence Party	-	Ind / Dem 2	2,498,226	16.5	13	−152,542	+0.3	+1	+1
Labor Party	SPE	S&D	2,381,760	15.7	13	−1,336,923	−6.9	−6	−5
Liberal Democrats	ELDR	ALDE	2,080,613	13.7	11	−371.714	−1.2	−1	+1
Green party	EGP	Greens / EFA	1,223,303	8.1	2	+190.210	+2.8	± 0	± 0
British National Party	-	-	943,598	6.2	2	+135,398	+1.3	+2	+2
Scottish National Party	EFA	Greens / EFA	321.007	2.1	2	+89.509	+0.7	± 0	± 0
Plaid Cymru	EFA	Greens / EFA	126,702	0.8	1	−33.087	−0.1	± 0	± 0
English Democrats	-	-	279,801	1.8	0	+149,745	+1.1	± 0	± 0
Christian Party / Christian People's Alliance	- / ECPB	-	249.493	1.6	0	-	-	-	-
Socialist Labor Party	-	-	173.115	1.1	0	-	-	-	-
No to EU - Yes to Democracy	-	-	153.236	1.0	0	-	-	-	-
Scottish Green Party	EGP	-	80,442	0.5	0	−747	± 0.0	± 0	± 0
Jury team	-	-	78,569	0.5	0	-	-	-	-
United Kingdom First Party	-	-	74.007	0.5	0	-	-	-	-
Libertas	Libertas	-	73,544	0.5	0	-	-	-	-
Jan Jananayagam ( independent )	-	-	50.014	0.3	0	-	-	-	-
Pensioners party	-	-	37,785	0.2	0	+4,284	± 0.0	± 0	± 0
Mebyon Kernow	EFA	-	14,922	0.1	0	-	-	-	-
Animals Count	-	-	13,201	0.1	0	-	-	-	-
Scottish Socialist Party	-	-	10,404	0.1	0	−50,952	−0.3	± 0	± 0
Duncan Robertson (independent)	-	-	10.189	0.1	0	-	-	-	-
Peter Rigby (independent)	-	-	9,916	0.1	0	-	-	-	-
The Peace Party	-	-	9,534	0.1	0	−3.038	± 0.0	± 0	± 0
Katie Hopkins (independent)	-	-	8,971	0.1	0	-	-	-	-
Fair Play Fair Trade Party	-	-	7.151	<0.1	0	-	-	-	-
The Roman Party	-	-	5,450	<0.1	0	-	-	-	-
Steven Cheung (independent)	-	-	4,918	<0.1	0	-	-	-	-
Socialist Party of Great Britain	-	-	4,050	<0.1	0	-	-	-	-
Francis Apaloo (independent)	-	-	3,621	<0.1	0	-	-	-	-
Yes to Europe	-	-	3,384	<0.1	0	-	-	-	-
Sohale Rahman (independent)	-	-	3,248	<0.1	0	-	-	-	-
Gene Alcantara (independent)	-	-	1,972	<0.1	0	-	-	-	-
Haroon Saad (independent)	-	-	1,603	<0.1	0	-	-	-	-
Wai D (Your Decision)	-	-	789	<0.1	0	-	-	-	-

Northern Ireland

candidate	Party / organization	European party	EP Group	Voices 2009		Seats 2009
				number	%
Bairbre de Brún	Sinn Féin	-	GUE-NGL	126.184	25.8	1
Diane Dodds	Democratic Unionist Party	-	-	88,346	18.1	1
Jim Nicholson	Ulster Conservatives and Unionists	- 1	EPP-ED 1	82,893	17.0	1
Alban Maginness	Social Democratic and Labor Party	SPE	-	78,489	16.1	0
Jim Allister	Traditional Unionist Voice	-	-	66,197	13.5	0
Ian Parsley	Alliance Party of Northern Ireland	ELDR	-	26,699	5.5	0
Steven Agnew	Green Party in Northern Ireland	EGP	-	15,764	3.2	0

¹ = The Conservative Party and the Ulster Unionist Party joined after the election of the newly formed European party AECR and the new ECR parliamentary group .

² = The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) became a member of the newly founded EFD parliamentary group after the election .

voter turnout

Of 45,315,669 eligible voters in the United Kingdom, 15,625,823 voted, representing a turnout of 34.5%. The turnout was 34.3% in the UK and 42.8% in Northern Ireland.

Survey

The following surveys relate to the UK only (excluding Northern Ireland):

UK polls on the 2009 European elections
Institute	date	conservative	Labor	UKIP	Lib-Dem	Greens	BNP	SNP	Pc	Others
You Gov	June 1, 2009	27%	17%	16%	15%	9%	7%	4% (SNP + PC)		6%
ICM	May 22, 2009	30%	24%	10%	18%	9%	1 %	4% (SNP + PC)		3%
You Gov	May 18, 2009	28%	22%	15%	17%	7%	5%	4% (SNP + PC)		1 %
You Gov	May 10, 2009	36%	25%	7%	20%	4%	4%	4% (SNP + PC)		1 %
You Gov	January 8, 2009	35%	29%	7%	15%	5%	4%	4% (SNP + PC)		2%
Results 2004		27%	23%	16%	15%	6%	4%	1.4%	1.0%	6%

Individual evidence

1. ↑ [1]
2. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 18, 2009: Under the Spell of Chinese Water Torture ( Memento of the original from May 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 
3. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung , June 5, 2009: The ministers tear down  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .  
4. ↑ ^{a b} result 2009
5. ↑ Result 2004
6. ^ Result in Northern Ireland 2009
7. ↑ ^{a b} Voter turnout in Northern Ireland 2009 ( Memento of the original from July 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 11 kB)  
8. ↑ Survey results on the YouGov website (PDF; 152 kB)
9. ↑ Poll results in The Guardian
10. ↑ Survey results on the YouGov website ( Memento of the original from June 12, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
11. ^ Poll results on the Times Online site
12. ↑ Survey results on the YouGov website (PDF; 144 kB)