Login
Login

United Kingdom European Parliament election records

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

This is an annotated list of notable records from United Kingdom elections to the European Parliament, which were held from 1979 through 2019.

European Parliament elections in Great Britain used two very different electoral systems. From 1979 until 1994, elections were conducted using first past the post (FPTP), with Great Britain divided into numerous single member constituencies. From 1999 through 2019, however, mainland elections used the d'Hondt method of proportional representation (PR), with 11 multi-member constituencies corresponding to Scotland, Wales and the regions of England. Northern Ireland always used the single transferable vote system.

As a result, comparisons between these two types elections are problematic, and the voting system will be noted by each record.

Numerical records

=Largest swings=

==National two-party swings==

Swing between the largest party at the previous election and the largest party at the next, or the second-largest party if there was no change.

===National Labour-Conservative (Butler) swings===


1 A majority of UKIP MEPs defected to the Brexit Party over the course of the 2014-2019 Parliament, and both UKIP in 2014 and the Brexit Party in 2019 were led by Nigel Farage.


2 The first election held under PR, swing is compared to previous FPTP election.


3 At least one major party was not in the top two.

=Largest fall in percentage share of vote=

== National ==


1 The first election held under PR, fall is compared to previous FPTP election.


2 Compared to the UK Green Party in 1989.

=Largest increase in percentage share of vote=

== National ==

=Largest numbers of seats=

After the introduction of PR, the number of seats correlated closely with national vote share, and no party ever won a majority. Under FPTP, the number of seats won can diverge significantly from national vote share. In the following elections, all FPTP, a single party won a majority:

Since 1999, the following elections saw one party take at least a third of the available seats:

=Highest turnout=

Turnout was historically low in UK EP elections compared to other European countries.

== National ==

=Lowest turnout=

== National ==

Party records

=Largest national vote share under PR=

For parties that returned at least one MEP:

class="wikitable sortable"
colspan=2|Party

!Election

!% Share

!Stood in

{{Party name with colour|Conservative Party (UK)}}

|1999 election

|33.5

|Great Britain

{{Party name with colour|Brexit Party}}2019 election

|30.5

|Great Britain

{{Party name with colour|UKIP}}2014 election

|26.6

|Great Britain

{{Party name with colour|Liberal Democrats (UK)}}2019 election

|19.6

|Great Britain

{{Party name with colour|Labour Party (UK)}}

|1999 election

|26.3

|Great Britain

{{Party name with colour|Green Party of England and Wales}}

|2019 election

|11.8

|England and Wales

{{Party name with colour|British National Party}}

|2009 election

|6.0

|Great Britain

{{Party name with colour|Scottish National Party}}

|2019 election

|3.6

|Scotland

{{Party name with colour|Plaid Cymru}}

|1999 election

|1.7

|Wales

The use of multiple preference votes makes comparisons with Northern Irish parties difficult.

=Smallest national vote share under PR=

For parties that returned at least one MEP:

class="wikitable sortable"
colspan=2|Party

!Election

!% Share

!Stood in

{{Party name with colour|Brexit Party}}2019 election

|30.5

|Great Britain

{{Party name with colour|Labour Party (UK)}}

|2019 election

|13.6

|Great Britain

{{Party name with colour|Conservative Party (UK)}}

|2019 election

|8.8

|Great Britain

{{Party name with colour|Liberal Democrats (UK)}}2014 election

|6.6

|Great Britain

{{Party name with colour|Green Party of England and Wales}}

|1999 election

|5.3

|England and Wales

{{Party name with colour|UKIP}}2019 election

|3.21

|Great Britain

{{Party name with colour|Scottish National Party}}

|2004 election

|1.4

|Scotland

{{Party name with colour|British National Party}}

|1999 election

|1.0

|Great Britain

{{Party name with colour|Plaid Cymru}}

|2014 election

|0.7

|Wales

1: Party failed to return any MEPs

=Largest national vote share under FPTP=

For parties that returned at least one MEP:

class="wikitable sortable"
colspan=2|Party

!Election

!% Share

!Stood in

{{Party name with colour|Conservative Party (UK)}}

|1979 election

|48.4

|Great Britain

{{Party name with colour|Labour Party (UK)}}

|1994 election

|42.6

|Great Britain

{{Party name with colour|Liberal Democrats (UK)}}1994 election

|16.1

|Great Britain

{{Party name with colour|Scottish National Party}}2014 election

|3.1

|Scotland

The Green Party won 14.5% of the vote in 1989, still the best Green performance at any nationwide election, but failed to win any seats due to the FPTP system. Similarly, the SDP–Liberal Alliance took 18.5% of the vote in 1984, again without winning a seat.

See also

References

  • [http://www.election.demon.co.uk/ United Kingdom Election Results]
  • [http://www.europarl.europa.eu/unitedkingdom/en/european-elections/european_elections/previous_election_results.html Previous Election Results], European Parliament Liaison Office in the United Kingdom

Records

European Parliament Election