2004 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom

2004 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom

← 1999 10 June 2004 2009 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All 78 of the United Kingdom's seats in the European Parliament
Turnout	38.5%[1] 14.5%
First party Second party   Leader Jonathan Evans Gary Titley Party Conservative Labour Alliance EPP PES Leader since 14 December 2001 2002 Leader's seat Wales North East England Last election 36 seats, 33.5% 29 seats, 26.3% Seats before 35‡ 25‡ Seats won 27 19 Seat change 8* 6* Popular vote 4,397,087 3,718,683 Percentage 25.9% 21.9% Swing 7.6% 4.4%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Roger Knapman Graham Watson Party UKIP Liberal Democrats Alliance ID ALDE Leader since 5 October 2002 January 2002 Leader's seat South West England South West England Last election 3 seats, 6.5% 10 seats, 11.9% Seats before 2‡ 10‡ Seats won 12 12 Seat change 10* 2* Popular vote 2,650,768 2,452,327 Percentage 15.6% 14.4% Swing 9.1% 2.6%
Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the results tables *Seat change has been adjusted to allow for direct comparison with the results from the 1999 election.[2] ‡Notional 1999 results

Part of a series of articles on
UK membership of the European Union (1973–2020)
show Accession Treaty of Accession 1972 1972 EC Act 1973 enlargement of the EC
show 1975 referendum Referendum Act (results)
show Treaty amendments Single European Act, 1986 (UK ratification) Maastricht Treaty, 1992 (UK ratification) Treaty of Amsterdam, 1997 (UK ratification) Treaty of Nice, 2001 (UK ratification) Treaty of Lisbon, 2007 (UK ratification) Related: 2011 UK Act on new EU Treaty amendments EU-related British Acts Proposed European Constitution referendum European Union Bill 2004–2005
show MEPs for UK constituencies Members 1973–1979 (elected by parliament) Members 1979–1984 (1979 election) Members 1984–1989 (1984 election) Members 1989–1994 (1989 election) Members 1994–1999 (1994 election) Members 1999–2004 (1999 election) Members 2004–2009 (2004 election) Members 2009–2014 (2009 election) Members 2014–2019 (2014 election) Members 2019–2020 (2019 election) Women
show Officials and bodies House of Lords EU Committee House of Commons EU Committee Permanent EU Representatives for UK Northern Ireland Executive in Brussels EU Representative in London UK European Commissioners Department for Exiting the European Union
show Issues and events Economy The Euro Black Wednesday UK budget rebate Nationality law Euroscepticism in the UK United Kingdom opt-outs from EU legislation Maastricht Rebels
show Withdrawal 2015–2016 membership renegotiation 2016 EU membership referendum Vote Leave Britain Stronger in Europe Notification of withdrawal Brexit negotiations Impact of Brexit Future relationship Withdrawal agreement No-deal Brexit Impact on Irish border Northern Ireland Protocol Parliamentary votes Proposed second referendum
EU portal ·  UK portal
v t

The 2004 European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's part of the wider 2004 European Parliament election which was held between 10 and 13 June 2004 in the 25 member states of the European Union. The United Kingdom's part of this election was held on Thursday 10 June 2004. The election also coincided with the 2004 local elections and the London Assembly and mayoral elections. In total, 78 Members of the European Parliament were elected from the United Kingdom using proportional representation.

The Conservative Party and the Labour Party both polled poorly. The Conservatives experienced their second-lowest ever recorded vote share in a national election (even less than their 1832 nadir, although the party would do worse still in the 2014 and 2019 elections), and Labour their lowest since 1918. The UK Independence Party (UKIP) saw a large increase in support, increasing its number of MEPs from 3 to 12 and on popular vote pushed the Liberal Democrats, who themselves had increased their representation from 10 to 12 seats into fourth place. In Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin beat the SDLP in the polls and took its first Northern Ireland seat.

Background[]

Electoral system[]

The United Kingdom elected 78 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 consequence of the 2004 enlargement of the European Union, the number of seats allocated to the United Kingdom was fewer than in 1999.

It was the first European election to be held in the United Kingdom using postal-only voting in four areas: the North East, North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, and East Midlands regions.^[3]

Regional seat allocations[]

A combination of the effects of the Treaty of Nice and the 2004 enlargement of the European Union meant that the number of seats allocated to the United Kingdom for the 2004 election was reduced from the 87 MEPs allocated for the 1999 election to 78 MEPs.^[4][5]

As a result of the successful challenge of Matthews v United Kingdom before the European Court of Human Rights in 1999^[6] residents of Gibraltar, voted in the European Parliament election for the first time, as part of the South West England region.^[7]

Changes in regional seat allocations^[8]

Constituency	Representation in 1999	Representation in 2004	Net Gain/Loss
East Midlands	6	6
East of England	8	7	1
London	10	9	1
North East England	4	3	1
North West England	10	9	1
Northern Ireland	3	3
Scotland	8	7	1
South East England	11	10	1
South West England1	7	7
Wales	5	4	1
West Midlands	8	7	1
Yorkshire and the Humber	7	6	1
Overall	87	78	9

¹ Includes Gibraltar, the only British overseas territory which is part of the EU.

Results[]

Partial map, showing most popular party by counting area on Great Britain only.

Turnout for all the regions was 37.6% on an electorate of 45,309,760^{[citation needed]}. The Conservatives and Labour both polled poorly. The Conservatives, although getting a vote share 4.1% greater than Labour, experienced their lowest vote share in a national election since 1832. Labour's vote share was its lowest since 1918. Labour's decline in votes was regarded as being largely due to widespread public dissatisfaction about the Iraq War and, as with the Conservatives, the increased popularity of UKIP. UKIP saw a large increase in support, increasing its number of MEPs from 3 to 12, drawing level with the Liberal Democrats, who themselves had increased their representation from 10 to 12 seats. UKIP polled higher than the Liberal Democrats and pushing them into fourth place.

Turnout was lowest in Scotland, which did not hold local elections on the same day. In Scotland, Labour topped the poll, followed by the Scottish National Party (SNP). The Conservative Party's share of the vote declined by 2 percent, making it the region with the smallest swing against them.^[8]

Wales was the only region were Labour increased its share of the vote compared to 1999. The Conservatives managed to make gains pushing Plaid Cymru into third and whose share of the vote fell by 12 percentage points relative to 1999. Similarly UKIP narrowly beat the Liberal Democrats into fourth place. Wales was the region were the Green Party polled their lowest share of the vote.^[8]

United Kingdom[]

All parties listed.

†Loss/gain figures for seats are losses/gains versus the 1999 notional result, as the number of MEPs overall fell.

Great Britain[]

Summary of the election results for Great Britain^[2]

All parties listed.

†Loss/gain figures for seats are losses/gains versus the 1999 notional result, as the number of MEPs overall fell.

Gibraltar[]

Gibraltar participated in the United Kingdom's election for the first time in 2004 as part of the South West England constituency. Gibraltar is a British overseas territory (BOT) and therefore is under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the United Kingdom but does not form part of it.^[9] Gibraltar is however part of the EU, the only BOT to be so. Following however, the result of the successful challenge of Matthews v United Kingdom before the European Court of Human Rights in 1999^[6] residents of Gibraltar were given the right to vote in the European Parliament elections. The British government decided not to give Gibraltar its own seat due to its small electorate of just over 20,000 which would have meant with just one seat Gibraltar would have been over-represented by about 30 times the average.^[7]

None of the main Gibraltar political parties contested the election, so voters chose from United Kingdom party lists. However, Lyana Armstrong-Emery of Gibraltar's Reform Party had a place on a joint list with the Green Party. In addition both the leader of the Conservative Party, Michael Howard, and his deputy, Michael Ancram, campaigned in Gibraltar.^[10]

Turnout in Gibraltar was 57.5%, higher than the 37.6% for the South West England electoral region as a whole.^[11] The Conservative Party polled over two-thirds of the Gibraltar vote, with no other party exceeding 10% support.

Northern Ireland[]

Turnout in Northern Ireland was 51.2%.^[12] Sinn Féin beat the SDLP in the polls and took its first Northern Ireland seat. Sinn Féin also won a seat in the corresponding elections in the Republic of Ireland.^[13] Sinn Féin and the DUP increased their shares of the vote relative to the 1999 European Parliament elections, while the shares for both the SDLP and the UUP fell.^[8] This was also the final election in which a Unionist candidate topped the poll in Northern Ireland.^[14] Jim Allister of the DUP and Bairbre de Brún of Sinn Féin were elected in the first round while Jim Nicholson of the UUP was elected in the third stage, after the votes of the other candidates were reallocated.^[8]

Summary of the election results for Northern Ireland^[15]

Party		Candidate(s)	Seats	Loss/Gain	First Preference Votes
					Number	% of vote
	DUP	Jim Allister	1		175,761	31.9
	Sinn Féin	Bairbre de Brún	1	1	144,541	26.3
	UUP	Jim Nicholson	1		91,164	16.6
	SDLP	Martin Morgan	0	1	87,559	15.9
	Independent	John Gilliland	0		36,270	6.6
	Socialist Environmental	Eamonn McCann	0		9,172	1.6
	Green (NI)	Lindsay Whitcroft	0		4,810	0.9
Total					549,277
Turnout						51.2%[12]

MEPs defeated[]

Labour

• David Bowe (Yorkshire and the Humber)
• Bill Miller (Scotland)
• Brian Simpson (North West England) - returned to the European Parliament in September 2006 and subsequently defended his seat in 2009.^[16]
• Mo O'Toole (North East England)
• Mark F. Watts (South East England)

Conservative

• Jacqueline Foster (North West England) - was subsequently reelected in the 2009 election.^[17]
• Alexander Macmillan (South West England)
• Roy Perry (South East England)
• Ian Twinn (London) - only took seat on 21 October 2003 after the ill-health resignation of Lord Bethell.^[18]

Plaid Cymru

• Eurig Wyn (Wales)

Aftermath[]

Both Tony Blair and Michael Howard faced criticism for their results with then Secretary of State for Health John Reid calling the results "disappointing" for Labour and "disastrous" for the Conservatives.^[19]

Shortly after the election UKIP's Robert Kilroy-Silk, who was credited with raising the profile of the party during the election, was interviewed by Channel 4 television about leadership ambitions, Kilroy-Silk did not deny having ambitions to lead the party, but stressed that Roger Knapman would lead it into the next general election.^{[citation needed]} However, the next day, on Breakfast with Frost, he criticised Knapman's leadership.^[20] After further disagreement with the leadership, Kilroy-Silk resigned the UKIP whip in the European Parliament on 27 October 2004.^[21] Initially, he remained a member, while seeking a bid for the party leadership.^[22] However, this was not successful and he resigned completely from UKIP on 20 January 2005, calling it a "joke".^[23] Two weeks later, he founded his own party, Veritas, taking a number of UKIP members, including both of the London Assembly members, with him.^[24]

UKIP formed a new European Parliament Group, Independence/Democracy which was co-chaired by Nigel Farage and Hanne Dahl.

See also[]

• 2005 United Kingdom general election
• List of political parties in the United Kingdom

References[]

External links[]

• European Election News by European Election Law Association (Eurela)
• Guide and results at the UK Office of the European Parliament
• Guide and links Richard Kimber's at Political Science Resources

Manifestos and documents[]

• Guardian (newspaper): incomplete collection of manifestos
• Conservative manifesto
• European Greens manifesto; Successes of the Greens in the European Parliament; A Green Contract for Europe; European Election Manifesto: Green Party of England and Wales Manifesto: Northern Ireland
• Labour document
• Liberal Democrat manifesto
• Democratic Unionist Party manifesto
• Social Democratic and Labour Party manifesto
• Socialist Environmental Alliance manifesto
• Ulster Unionist Party manifesto European manifesto (ED)
• Scottish National Party manifesto
• Plaid Cymru / The Party of Wales Manifesto