East Midlands Euros
The East Midlands European region covers Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Rutland and post-1974 Lincolnshire. In 2004 it elected 6 MEPs using the d’Hondt method, but under the Treaty of Nice it will lose a seat at the next election, returning only 5 MEPs. This means the Liberal Democrats notionally lose a seat in this region, though they would regain it on the smallest of swings from any of the other parties.
In 2004 the region returned 2 Conservatives, 2 UKIP, 1 Labour and 1 Liberal Democrat. It was contested by the former television presenter Robert Kilroy-Silk, with the result that UKIP were almost able to top the poll and gained seats from Labour and the Conservatives. Kilroy-Silk subsequently left UKIP to found his own short-lived Veritas party and now sits as an Independent. It is unclear whether he will contest the seat at the next European elections.
Sitting MEPs and 2004 Results
| 1. | Roger Helmer (Conservative) | 371,362 (26.4%) | ||
| 2. | Robert Kilroy-Silk (Independent) | 366,498 (26.1%) | (Originally elected as UKIP) | |
| 3. | Glenis Wilmot (Labour) | 294,198 (21.0%) | (Replaced Philip Whitehead in 2005) | |
| 4. | Chris Heaton-Harris (Conservative) | (185,681) | (Will stand down at next election) | |
| 5. | Derek Clark (UKIP) | (183,249) | ||
| 6. | Bill Newton Dunn (Lib Dem) | 181,964 (12.9%) | ||
| -. | BNP | 91,860 (6.5%) | ||
| -. | Green | 76,633 (5.5%) | ||
| -. | Respect | 20,009 (1.4%) | ||
| -. | Russell Rogers (Independent) | 2,615 (0.2%) | ||
| -. | S. Halliday (Independent) | 847 (0.1%) |
2009 Candidates
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| 2. Tom Rogers | 3. Tim Webb |
| 4. Colin Bricher | 5. Doreen Scrimshaw |
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| 2. Tony Ellis | 3. Diane Bilgrami |
| 4. David Ball | 5. Anthony Edwards |
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NB - Candidates lists are provisional, based on candidates declared before the campaign. They will be updated to reflect the final list of candidates as soon as possible following the close of nominations.
With a threshold of 20% – Tory 2 had 10.2%, with BNP coming up behind with 8.7% – greens on 6.8%. Suppose I am techy (I was nearly thumped by 1 BNP voter) but the 1.5% gap between Tory 2 and BNP is still too close for my liking. Very very sorry to lose John Legrys the Labour Councillor for Coalville. I still wonder what will happen abtu the Standards Board Enquiry into allegations of irregularities wrt the Breedon County seat – police are investigating too. You will have to search the Leicester mercury for the full story – search under Dirty Tricks – [snipped details- AW]. We await the slow wheels of justice
Eric,
If I were you I’d take more care when it came to throwing around accusations on the internet.
“With a threshold of 20% – Tory 2 had 10.2%, with BNP coming up behind with 8.7%”
There is no threshold of 20%. The vote for each party is divided by 1+number of seats already won, therefore when the Tories won their first seat their vote is halved – to 15.1% in this case. In the event there were 6 seats in this region the Conservatives would have won the next seat, their original vote having been divided by 3, putting them on 10.1%. Only for an imaginary seventh seat would it have then been close – between the BNP, a second Labour seat and a second UKIP seat which the BNP would narrowly have won. (Labour would then have won seat 8, UKIP seat 9, Conservatives seat 10)
Eric unlike you i am delighted to see the back of legrys after his verbal attack against the BNP at a county council meeting late last year he was a target to remove and it was great to see him go. As for the greens taking a seat LOL!!! (Legrys used to be a Green before labour) just where do you get your info. So you were nearly thumped by a BNP supporter any reason why or another laboue Lie. Did you spend your day like the labour NWL PPC ripping down and stealing BNP placards ? rather than campaigning.
Hi Pete
I am ignoring the BNP by the way – and yes I was nearly thumped by one of their supporters. However in view of the non-partisan nature of this web-site I refer readers to my blogs on the BNP, who have brought nothing but shame to this region.
There are only 5 seats in the East Midlands this time, not 6. However I was not aware of the bizarre rules you outline. I assumed that with 5 seats you need 20% to win – then the remaining votes are allocated to the next on the list – thus 20% for Tory 1 leaving 10.2 for Tory 2. If that is not how it is done then it seems a strange system. And you are therefore correct.
Very pleased to see UKIP presented a clear case on the EU, unlike the Tories who always claim to be anti-EU but are in fact the architects of British Membership of the EU.
Yes Eric I’m aware there are only 5 seats here now. I did say that “In the event there were 6 seats ” that the sixth seat would also have gone Tory in order to demonstrate how with 5 seats it was not actually at all close to a situation of either the BNP or the Greens winning a seat.
My error was thinking that it worked like STV. It was therefore a good win for Roger and Emma (whom I have yet to have any contact with and I hope will take a different line to Roger on EU affairs).
Most of the people I canvassed who were intending to vote BNP (apart from the one who tried to thump me) said that it was a protest vote – I hope so.
So where next for the EU then? The 3 main parties , all of whom are committed to remain in the EU, secured around 65% of the votes cast – so we are in for the next 5 years at least. It needs reform badly. I would like to see more power given to the elected EU parliament and taken away from the Council of Ministers.
Will UKIP voters return to the main parties for the General Election – or will David Cameron’s very pro-EU Euroepan Elections manifesto (I read it this evening) keep UKIP strong.
Which is all leading up to wondering if the size of ‘other’ votes will decide the next General Election – as electoral reform is unlikelt to happen by then
Eric my friend ‘The protest vote’ as you call it, keeps growing. Personally the people i have canvassed over the past 6 years across the UK tell me a different reason for voting BNP. Love your website by the way. As pete says we were not that close with the euros as it worked we would of taken the 7th seat (if only the East Mids had 7) still filling the gaps to make sure we are it a better position next time.
The problem, Eric, with giving more powers to the European Parliament is that it is not an especially reliable expression of the democratic will of the European electorate. For that to be the case it would have to be elected following a pan-European campaign conducted by trans-national political parties to chose between competing potential programmes of government for an EU wide administrarion. The major obstacle to this happening are the cultural, social and linguistic divisions across the EU which meen that no European demos exists in any real sense. At the moment we don’t really have a European election we have a whole load of national elections for members of the European parliament which may be, but more often are not, conducted with reference to European issues.
I am interested by your assertion that your preffered transfer of power should be from the council of ministers to the parliament. Surely the instituion more responsible for the undemocratic nature of the EU is the Commission. It is the power of the Commission that needs to be curbed. If you were drawing up a constitution for the UK that proposed the kind of power for the civil service that is wielded by the commission people would rightly condemn it as being profoundly undemocratic.