Yorkshire & Humberside Euros
The Yorkshire and Humberside region covers Yorkshire and the former county of Humberside. It currently returns 6 MEPs, and in 2004 returned two Conservatives, two Labour, one Liberal Democrat and one UKIP MEP.
Sitting MEPs and 2004 Results
| 1. | Linda McAvan (Labour) | 413,213 (26.3%) | ||
| 2. | Timothy Kirkhope (Conservative) | 387,369 (24.6%) | ||
| 3. | Diana Wallis (Liberal Democrat) | 244,607 (15.6%) | ||
| 4. | Godfrey Bloom (UKIP) | 228,666 (14.0%) | ||
| 5. | Richard Corbett (Labour) | (206,607) | ||
| 6. | Edward McMillan-Scott (Conservative) | (193,685) | ||
| -. | BNP | 126,538 (8.0%) | ||
| -. | Green | 90,337 (5.7%) | ||
| -. | Respect | 29,865 (1.9%) | ||
| -. | English Democrats | 24,068 (1.5%) | ||
| -. | Robert Ellis (Independent) | 14,762 (0.9%) | ||
| -. | All. for Green Socialism | 13,776 (0.9%) |
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| 2. Edward Devoy | 3. Stephen Clark |
| 4. Diana MacLeod | 5. Trevor Bending |
| 6. Kathleen Harris |
Given the previous suggestion of merging this seat with North East England, I’ve checked to see how the seats would have panned out in a hypothetical merged constituency, assuming the votes and number of seats had stayed the same.
The result would have been: Con 3; Lab 2; UKIP 2; Lib Dem 1; BNP 1 – one seat moving from the Lib Dems to UKIP. The Greens would fail to take the Conservative’s third seat by around 400 votes.
That ruddy better not be a LibDem member !
Pete Whitehead
“The pair of sitting MEPs who head up the Conservative list in this region illustrate perfectly why any Conservative in Yorkshire (and the Humber) should vote other than Conservative.”
April 3rd, 2009 at 1:21 am
My point made I think. Edward MacMillan-Scott has now been expelled by the Conservative party and the ECR group for standing against the official candidate. Presumably he will end up back in the EPP with his German and Belgian Christian Democrat friends – not what most people in Yorkshire who voted Conservative were voting for I would have thought.
Indeed not.
It is very depressing to be feeling towards the Conservatives the way I did between 1993 and 1997 even before they’re in government.
It is also incredibly stupid for the Conservative leadership to be neglecting their traditional supporters now that protest parties such as UKIP and EDP exist.
Regarding this region is there any reason why, now that Humberside no longer exists, that N Lincolnshire and NE Lincolnshire cannot rejoin the East Midlands?
Perhaps they prefer to be in the Yorkshire region though as they have close connections with South and East Yorkshire.
I doubt whether the preferences of residents forms any part of the criteria in making these decisions
As it relates to the EU I doubt whether the preferences or votes of the residents would have any effect.
Edward McMillan-Scott has been expelled from the Conservative Party.
Edward McMillan-Scott has just joined the Liberal Democrats
So now the party which came fourth in votes in this region has twice as many MEPs as any other party including the three parties who won more votes. I trust that the Lib Dems believing in ‘fairness’ will prevail upon Mr Macmillan-Scott to resign his seat so that it can be rightfully occupied by a Conservative MEP in accordance with the democratically expressed wishes of the electors of Yorkshire & the Humber.
If he wishes to do that, I am sure he would be supported.
As for the first point, it not the fault of a long dead Belgian or his voting system that an elected member has been expelled from one party and subsequently joined another.
I don’t know why the Tories kept selecting him when it has been obvious he might join the LDs for at least 15 years.
“As for the first point, it not the fault of a long dead Belgian or his voting system that an elected member has been expelled from one party and subsequently joined another”
I wasn’t aware that I suggested it was. It is certainly a failing in the implementation of the system here that someone who holds his place purely by virtue of votes cast for a party list can still retain that place when he defects to a different party. It is bad enough when MPs sitting for single member constituencies defect and therefore turn against the wishes of those who voted for them, but they are at least able to maintain the fiction that they have been elected as an individual rather than as a representative of a party and therefore have some kind of personal mandate. There is no personal mandate here. The party list won seats in the European parliament not the individual therefore if one leaves the party they should forfeit their seat and it should go to the next person on the list of the party in question (in this case Fleur Butler).
Andy is entirely correct of course and the Conservatives were idiotic to continue to select someone like this. My sympathy is not with them but with the Conservative voters in Yorkshire who continued to think that a vote for their party was worthwhile in this election.
Mr Macmillan-Scott’s reselection as a Conservative candidate for the most recent round of elections was doubtless aided by the disgraceful selection process the party employed. If as a potential candidate you were not a woman or an incumbent MEP the odds of securing a prominent place on a list were stacked so much against you it was almost not worth bothering. The advantages in the selection process given to current MEPs forms a large part of the explanation as to why the views of so many Tory Euro MPs still continue to be out of step with the balance of opinion in the party and the country.
Macmillan-Scott is following in the footsteps of Bill Newton-Dunn in leaving the party having been elected following a Euro-sceptic campaign, citing the fact that the Tories are too Euro-sceptic. What a pair of tools.
If he or his new party have a shred of decency and respect for the wishes of the voters of this region as expressed through the ballot box, he will be standing down in order to allow a Conservative to take his place. I wont be banking on that happening.
In common with British Euro MPs South Africa Members of Parliament and members of provincial assemblies are also elected via a closed list electoral system. For just over a year floor crossing by elected representatives has been outlawed there on the grounds that individuals should not be allowed to unilaterally alter the political composition of an assembly so that it is no longer an accurate reflection of the balance of the votes cast at the preceding election.
For as long as UK MEPs are elected via closed lists, a similar rule should be introduced preventing them from crossing the floor. Those elected via closed list cannot really claim to have much of a personal mandate.