Quick Facts
Biography
East Midlands is an English constituency of the European Parliament in the United Kingdom. Established in 1999 with six members to replace single-member districts, since 2009 it has returned five MEPs, elected using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.
Boundaries
The constituency corresponds to the East Midlands region of England, comprising the counties of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire and the non-Metropolitan county of Lincolnshire.
History
The constituency was organized as a result of the European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999, replacing a number of single-member constituencies. These were Leicester, Northamptonshire and Blaby, Nottingham and Leicestershire North West, Nottinghamshire North and Chesterfield, and parts of Lincolnshire and Humberside South, Peak District, and Staffordshire East and Derby.
| MEPs for former East Midlands constituencies, 1979 – 1999 | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Election | 1979 – 1984 | 1984 – 1989 | 1989 – 1994 | 1994 – 1999 | |||||||
| Derbyshire (1979 – 1994) | Tom Spencer Conservative | Geoff Hoon Labour | Seat abolished | ||||||||
| Leicester | Frederick Tuckman Conservative | Mel Read Labour | Susan Waddington Labour | ||||||||
| Lincolnshire (1979 – 1994) Lincolnshire and Humberside South (1994 – 1999) | Bill Newton Dunn Conservative | Veronica Hardstaff Labour | |||||||||
| Northamptonshire (1979 – 1994) Northamptonshire and Blaby (1994 – 1999) | Anthony Simpson Conservative | Angela Billingham Labour | |||||||||
| Nottingham (1979 – 1994) Nottingham and Leicestershire North West (1994 – 1999) | Michael Gallagher Labour (1979–1984) SDP (1984) | Michael Kilby Conservative | Ken Coates Labour | Mel Read Labour | |||||||
| Nottinghamshire North and Chesterfield (1994 – 1999) | Seat not established | Ken Coates Labour | |||||||||
| Peak District (1994 – 1999) | Seat not established | Arlene McCarthy Labour | |||||||||
| Staffordshire East and Derby (1994 – 1999) | Staffordshire East in West Midlands | Phillip Whitehead Labour | |||||||||
Returned members
| MEPs for the East Midlands, 1999 onwards | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Election | 1999 (5th parliament) | 2004 (6th parliament) | 2009 (7th parliament) | 2014 (8th parliament) | |||||
| MEP Party | Phillip Whitehead Labour | Glenis Willmott Labour | |||||||
| MEP Party | Mel Read Labour | Derek Clark UKIP | Margot Parker UKIP | ||||||
| MEP Party | Roger Helmer Conservative (1999–2012) UKIP (2012–) | ||||||||
| MEP Party | Bill Newton Dunn Conservative (1999–2000) Liberal Democrat (2000–2014) | Andrew Lewer Conservative | |||||||
| MEP Party | Chris Heaton-Harris Conservative | Emma McClarkin Conservative | |||||||
| MEP Party | Nick Clegg Liberal Democrat | Robert Kilroy-Silk UKIP (2004) Veritas (2004–05) Independent (2005–09) | Seat abolished | ||||||
Notes:
- 1 Roger Helmer announced on 12 October 2011 his intention to stand down from the European Parliament. After uncertainty whether his place would be taken by the next person on the Conservative Party's list for the East Midlands region, he defected to UKIP and completed his term as MEP.
Key to political groups of the European Parliament (UK) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK Independence Party | 22 | Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy | 46 | ||
| Conservative Party | 20 | European Conservatives and Reformists | 73 | ||
| Ulster Unionist Party | 1 | ||||
| Labour Party | 20 | Socialists and Democrats | 189 | ||
| Green Party of England and Wales | 3 | Greens–European Free Alliance | 50 | ||
| Scottish National Party | 2 | ||||
| Plaid Cymru | 1 | ||||
| Liberal Democrats | 1 | Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe | 70 | ||
| Sinn Féin | 1 | European United Left–Nordic Green Left | 52 | ||
| Independent | 1 | Europe of Nations and Freedom | 38 | ||
| Democratic Unionist Party | 1 | Non-Inscrits | 16 | ||
| No UK party is a member of the EPP Group | European People's Party | 215 | |||
| Total | 73 | Total | 749 | ||
Complaint against Kilroy-Silk
In August 2005, four of the MEPs for the region (Clark, Heaton-Harris, Helmer and Whitehead) sent a joint letter to President of the European Parliament Josep Borrell to complain of Kilroy-Silk:
"He seems to have done little or no work as a constituency MEP for the East Midlands. This leaves five MEPs to do the work of six and the electorate have been short-changed". They complained that Kilroy-Silk was not "fulfilling the pledge he made on becoming an MEP, to serve the electorate of his region" and to call for him to "either do the job for which he is paid, or get out and leave it to those who can."
The parliament has no power to remove Mr Kilroy-Silk, who is understood to have attended the minimum number of plenary sessions required to be eligible for his parliamentary allowances. Such a complaint was unprecedented. Kilroy-Silk refused to comment on it. The European Parliament does not have any power to expel a member, and Borrell took no action.
Election results
Elected candidates are shown in bold. Brackets indicate the number of votes per seat won.
2014
| European Election 2014: East Midlands | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| List | Candidates | Votes | % | ± | |
| UKIP | Roger Helmer, Margot Parker, Jonathan Bullock, Nigel Wickens, Barry Mahoney | 368,734 (184,367) | 32.90 | +16.45 | |
| Conservative | Emma McClarkin, Andrew Lewer, Rupert Matthews, Stephen Castens, Brendan Clarke-Smith | 291,270 (145,635) | 25.99 | −4.16 | |
| Labour | Glenis Willmott, Rory Palmer, Linda Woodings, Khalid Hadadi, Nick Brooks | 279,363 | 24.93 | +8.08 | |
| Green | Katharina Boettge, Sue Mallender, Richard Mallender, Peter Allen, Simon Hales | 67,066 | 5.98 | −0.85 | |
| Liberal Democrat | Bill Newton Dunn, Issan Ghazni, Phil Knowles, George Smid, Deborah Newton-Cook | 60,773 | 5.42 | −6.91 | |
| An Independence from Europe | Chris Pain, Val Pain, Alan Jesson, John Beaver, Carl Mason | 21,384 | 1.91 | N/A | |
| BNP | Catherine Duffy, Robert West, Bob Brindley, Geoffrey Dickens, Paul Hilliard | 18,326 | 1.64 | −7.02 | |
| English Democrat | Kevin Sills, David Wickham, John Dowie, Oliver Healey, Terry Spencer | 11,612 | 1.04 | −1.28 | |
| Harmony Party | Steve Ward | 2,194 | 0.2 | N/A | |
| Turnout | 1,120,722 | 33.2 | −3.9 | ||
2009
| European Election 2009: East Midlands | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| List | Candidates | Votes | % | ± | |
| Conservative | Roger Helmer, Emma McClarkin Rupert Matthews, Fiona Bulmer, George Lee | 370,275 (185,137.5) | 30.2 | +3.8 | |
| Labour | Glenis Willmott Roy Kennedy, Kathryn Salt, J David Morgan, Cate Taylor | 206,945 | 16.9 | −4.1 | |
| UKIP | Derek Clark Christopher Pain, Stephen Allison, Deva Kumarasiri, Irena Marriott | 201,184 | 16.4 | −9.6 | |
| Liberal Democrat | Bill Newton Dunn Ed Maxfield, Veena Hudson, Denise Hawksworth, Deborah Newton-Cook | 151,428 | 12.3 | −0.6 | |
| BNP | Robert West, Cathy Duffy, Peter Jarvis, Lewis Alsebrook, Kevin Stafford | 106,319 | 8.7 | +2.1 | |
| Green | Sue Blount, Richard Mallender, Ashley Baxter, Matthew Follett, Barney Smith | 83,939 | 6.8 | +1.4 | |
| English Democrat | Derek Hilling, Tony Ellis, Diane Bilgrami, David Ball, Anthony Edwards | 28,498 | 2.3 | N/A | |
| UK First | Ian Gillman, Christopher Elliot, Nadine Platt, David Noakes, Mariann Finch | 20,561 | 1.7 | N/A | |
| Christian | Suzanne Nti, Thomas Rogers, Timothy Webb, Colin Bricher, Doreen Schrimshaw | 17,907 | 1.5 | N/A | |
| Socialist Labour | David Roberts, Paul Liversuch, Shaun Kirkpatrick, Michael Clifford, Thea Roberts | 13,590 | 1.1 | N/A | |
| NO2EU | John McEwan, Avtar Sadiq, Jean Thorpe, Shangara Singh Gahonia, Laurence Platt | 11,375 | 0.9 | N/A | |
| Libertas | Richard Elvin, Margot Parker, Peter Chaplin | 7,882 | 0.6 | N/A | |
| Jury Team | James Lowey, Simon Flude, James Parker, Henry Blanchard, Perry Wilsher | 7,362 | 0.6 | N/A | |
| Turnout | 1,228,065 | 37.1 | −6.3 | ||
2004
| European Election 2004: East Midlands | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| List | Candidates | Votes | % | ± | |
| Conservative | Roger Helmer, Chris Heaton-Harris Pauline Latham, Sharon Buckle, Jonathan Bullock, Sarah Richardson | 371,362 (185,681) | 26.4 | −13.1 | |
| UKIP | Robert Kilroy-Silk, Derek Clark Ian Gillman, Peter Baker, John Browne, Barry Mahoney | 366,498 (183,249) | 26.1 | +18.5 | |
| Labour | Phillip Whitehead Glenis Willmott, Ross Willmott, Vandna Kalia, Alan Rhodes, Elizabeth Donnelly | 294,918 | 21.0 | −7.6 | |
| Liberal Democrat | Bill Newton Dunn Alan Riley, Veena Hudson, Richard Church, Deborah Newton-Cook, Lisa Gabriel | 181,964 | 12.9 | +0.2 | |
| BNP | Peter Francis, Clive Potter, Patrick May, John Pennington, Wendy Russell, John Hall | 91,860 | 6.5 | +5.2 | |
| Green | Brian Fewster, Susan Blount, Robert Ball, Simon Anthony, Paul Bodenham, John Chadwick | 76,633 | 5.5 | +0.1 | |
| Respect | Mohammed Suleman, Sulma Mansuri, Pauline Robinson, Helen Merryman, Craig Plowman, Mary Littlefield | 20,009 | 1.4 | N/A | |
| Independent | Russell Rogers | 2,615 | 0.2 | N/A | |
| Independent | Shadmyraine Halliday | 847 | 0.1 | N/A | |
| Turnout | 1,406,706 | 43.4 | +20.6 | ||
1999
| European Election 1999: East Midlands | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| List | Candidates | Votes | % | ± | |
| Conservative | Roger Helmer, Bill Newton Dunn, Chris Heaton-Harris Javed Arain, Sharon Buckle, Pauline Latham | 285,662 (95,220.67) | 39.5 | N/A | |
| Labour | Mel Read, Phillip Whitehead Angela Billingham, Susan Waddington, Valerie Vaz, Veronica Hardstaff, John Mann | 206,756 (103,378) | 28.6 | N/A | |
| Liberal Democrat | Nick Clegg Susan Barber, Ash Vadher, Lisa Gabriel, Brian Niblett, Lesley Dunbar | 92,398 | 12.7 | N/A | |
| UKIP | Hugh Meechan, Edward Spalton, Derek Clark, David Barraclough, Barry Mahoney, Dusan Torbica | 54,800 | 7.6 | N/A | |
| Green | Gaynor Backhouse, Geoffrey Forse, Brian Fewster, Sue Blount, Ashley Baxter, Jill Bullock | 38,954 | 5.4 | N/A | |
| Leeds Left Alliance | Ken Coates, Tony Simpson, Jill Dawn, Peter Jackson, Peter McGowan, Robert West | 17,409 | 2.4 | N/A | |
| Pro-Euro Conservative | Freddie de Lisle, John Szermerey, Julien Goodman, Katheryn Stokes, Greg Chadwick, Clive Stoddart | 11,359 | 1.6 | N/A | |
| BNP | Steven Belshaw, Adrian Belshaw, Barry Roberts, Neil Phillips, Edward Sheppard, Michael Coleman | 9,342 | 1.3 | N/A | |
| Socialist Labour | David Roberts, Paul Liversuch, Valerie Seabright, Thea Hutt, Stanley Taylor, Stephen Marvin | 5,528 | 0.8 | N/A | |
| Natural Law | Russell France, Susan Lincoln, Patricia Saunders, David Cooke, Andrew Doughty, Neil Allison | 1,525 | 0.2 | N/A | |
| Turnout | 723,733 | 22.8 | N/A | ||