United Kingdom European Parliament election records explained

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:

PartyElection% ShareStood in
1999 election33.5Great Britain
2019 election30.5Great Britain
2014 election26.6Great Britain
2019 election19.6Great Britain
1999 election26.3Great Britain
2019 election11.8England and Wales
2009 election6.0Great Britain
2019 election3.6Scotland
1999 election1.7Wales

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:

PartyElection% ShareStood in
2019 election30.5Great Britain
2019 election13.6Great Britain
2019 election8.8Great Britain
2014 election6.6Great Britain
1999 election5.3England and Wales
2019 election3.21Great Britain
2004 election1.4Scotland
1999 election1.0Great Britain
2014 election0.7Wales

1: Party failed to return any MEPs

Largest national vote share under FPTP

For parties that returned at least one MEP:

PartyElection% ShareStood in
1979 election48.4Great Britain
1994 election42.6Great Britain
1994 election16.1Great Britain
2014 election3.1Scotland

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