European Parliament Elections 2014 Updated 12 March 2014 Overview of Candidates in the United Kingdom Contents 1.0 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 2 2.0 CANDIDATE SELECTION PROCESS ............................................................................................. 2 3.0 EUROPEAN ELECTIONS: VOTING METHOD IN THE UK ................................................................ 3 4.0 PRELIMINARY OVERVIEW OF CANDIDATES BY UK CONSTITUENCY ............................................ 3 5.0 ANNEX: LIST OF SITTING UK MEMBERS OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ................................ 16 6.0 ABOUT US ............................................................................................................................. 17 All images used in this briefing are © Barryob / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0 / GFDL © DeHavilland EU Ltd 2014. All rights reserved. 1 | 18 European Parliament Elections 2014 1.0 Introduction This briefing is part of DeHavilland EU’s Foresight Report series on the 2014 European elections and provides a preliminary overview of the candidates standing in the UK for election to the European Parliament in 2014. In the United Kingdom, the election for the country’s 73 Members of the European Parliament will be held on Thursday 22 May 2014. The elections come at a crucial junction for UK-EU relations, and are likely to have far-reaching consequences for the UK’s relationship with the rest of Europe: a surge in support for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) could lead to a Britain that is increasingly dis-engaged from the EU policy-making process. In parallel, the current UK Government is also conducting a review of the EU’s powers and Prime Minister David Cameron has repeatedly pushed for a ‘repatriation’ of powers from the European to the national level. These long-term political developments aside, the elections will also have more direct and tangible consequences. All three of Britain’s current Parliamentary Committee chairs – Sharon Bowles, Brian Simpson and Malcolm Harbour – are standing down, potentially leaving a void that a new intake of British MEPs may struggle to fill. 2.0 Candidate Selection Process All major UK political parties (the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrat, and UKIP) have concluded their candidate selection processes for all British regions where they are standing and determined the ranking of individual candidates on the ballot. Candidates for other parties such as the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru have also been included in this briefing where relevant. For the purposes of the European elections, the UK has been divided into twelve constituencies. To find out more about the candidates in each of these constituencies, please use the overview on page 3. The annex to this briefing also provides an overview of all current British MEPs to indicate who is running for re-election and those who are standing down in 2014. All information in this document is of a provisional nature only. More information on the candidate selection process in all 28 EU Member States will be published by DeHavilland EU on an on-going basis on our website. For further questions, please email [email protected]. © DeHavilland EU Ltd 2014. All rights reserved. 2 | 18 European Parliament Elections 2014 3.0 European Elections: Voting Method in the UK For the European elections, the United Kingdom is divided into twelve constituencies which each elect between 3 and 10 Members of the European Parliament. These constituencies correspond to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, while England is divided into 9 regional constituencies. The UK employs two voting methods for elections to the European Parliament: Closed Party Lists under Proportional Representation in England, Wales and Scotland, and the Single Transferable Vote (STV) in Northern Ireland. 3.1 Closed Party Lists under Proportional Representation Under Closed Party Lists, voters mark a cross on the ballot paper next to the party’s name they wish to support in their constituency. Once the ballot papers have been counted, each party gets the number of seats proportionate to the number of votes it has received in each constituency. As voters choose parties rather than candidates, it is for the parties to determine the order in which candidates appear on the list and are then elected. As such, the voters cannot influence or alter the order in which candidates appear as there is no possibility of voting for an individual candidate. 3.2 Single Transferable Vote (STV) Under STV, voters rank candidates in order of preference by marking 1, 2 and 3 next to the names of candidates on a ballot paper. A voter can rank as many or as few candidates as they like or just vote for one candidate. Each candidate needs a minimum number of votes to be elected. This number is calculated according to the number of seats (3 in the case of Northern Ireland’s elections for the European Parliament) and votes cast, and is called a quota. The first preference votes for each candidate are added up and any candidate who has achieved this quota is elected. If a candidate has more votes than are needed to fill the quota, that candidate’s surplus votes are transferred to the remaining candidates. Votes that would have gone to the winner instead go to the second preference listed on those ballot papers. If candidates do not meet the quota, the candidate with the fewest first preference votes is eliminated and the second preference votes are transferred to other candidates. These processes are repeated until all the seats are filled. 4.0 Preliminary Overview of Candidates by UK Constituency The pages below provide an overview of the basic details about each of the 12 constituencies into which the UK is divided for the purposes of the European Parliament elections. For each constituency, the names of known candidates are given, as well as the names of current Members of the European Parliament who have indicated they will not stand for re-election in 2014. Jump to candidates for all constituencies England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales East Midlands East London North East North West South East South West West Midlands Yorkshire © DeHavilland EU Ltd 2014. All rights reserved. 3 | 18 European Parliament Elections 2014 England Constituency profile: East Midlands Population 4.5 million Number of MEPs: 5 Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Counties covered: Lincolnshire (partial), Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Rutland Major settlements Nottingham, Derby Conservatives 1 Labour 1 Liberal Democrats 1 Current division of seats: UK Independence Party 2 Greens 0 Total 5 MEPs standing down: Derek Clark (UKIP) Candidates for the East Midlands Constituency Sitting MEPs are highlighted in bold. Numbers indicate the final ranking on the ballot. Conservatives Labour Liberal Democrats UKIP Greens 1. Emma McClarkin 1. Glennis Wilmott 1. Bill Newton-Dunn 1. Roger Helmer 1. Katharina Boettge 2. Andrew Lewer 2. Rory Palmer 2. Issan Ghazni 2. Margot Parker 2. Sue Mallender 3. Rupert Matthews 3. Linda Wooding 3. Phil Knowles 3. Jonathan Bullock 3. Peter Allan 4. Stephen Castens 4. Khalid Hadadi 4. George Smid 4. Nigel Wickens 4. Richard Mallender 5. Brendan Clarke-Smith 5. Nicki Brooks 5. Deborah Newton-Cook 5. Barry Mahoney 5. Simon Hales Liberal Democrat MEP Bill Newton-Dunn, who is expected to head his party’s list in the East Midlands in 2014, previously served as a Conservative Member of the European Parliament from the first direct elections in 1979 until 1994. He crossed the floor to his current party in 2000 out of frustration that then-Conservative leader William Hague had “overturned 40 years of constructive engagement” by Britain in Europe. Jump to candidates for other constituencies England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales East Midlands East London North East North West South East South West West Midlands Yorkshire © DeHavilland EU Ltd 2014. All rights reserved. 4 | 18 European Parliament Elections 2014 England Constituency profile: East of England Population 5.8 million Number of MEPs: 7 Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Counties covered: Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk Major settlements: Norwich, Cambridge Conservatives 4 Labour 1 Current division of Liberal Democrats 1 seats: UK Independence Party 1 Greens 0 MEPs standing down: Robert Sturdy (Conservatives) Candidates for the East of England Constituency Sitting MEPs are highlighted in bold. Numbers indicate the final ranking on the ballot. Conservatives Labour Liberal Democrats UKIP Greens 1. Vicky Ford 1. Richard Howitt 1. Andrew Duff 1. Patrick O’Flynn 1. Rupert Read 2. Geoffrey Van Orden 2. Alex Mayer 2. Josephine Hayes 2. Stuart Agnew 2. Mark Ereira-Guyer 3. David Campbell 3. Sandy Martin 3. Belinda Brooks-Gordon 3. Tim Aker 3. Jill Mills Bannerman 4. Bhavna Joshi 4. Stephen Robinson 4. Michael Heaver 4. Ash Haynes 4. John Flack 5. Paul Bishop 5. Michael Green 5. Andrew Smith 5. Marc Scheimann 5. Tom Hunt 6. Naseem Ayub 6. Linda Jack 6. Mick McGough 6. Robert Lindsay 6. Margaret Simons 7. Chris Ostrowski 7. Hugh Annand 7. Andy Monk 7. Fiona Radic 7. Jonathan Collett East of England Tory MEP David Campbell-Bannerman (“DCB”) sat for UKIP between 2009 and 2011, having previously stood as a candidate for the Westminster Parliament for the Conservatives in 1997 and 2001. In 2011 he re-joined the Conservatives in the European Parliament, and he is third on the ballot for the 2014 elections. UKIP candidate Patrick