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All 73 United Kingdom seats in the European Parliament | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Opinion polls | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Registered | 46,550,683 [n 1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 37.2%[1] ![]() | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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![]() Results of the 2019 EU Election in the UK by local authorities. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Part of a series of articles on |
UK membership of the European Union (1973–2020) |
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Part of a series of articles on |
Brexit |
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Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union Glossary of terms |
The 2019 European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's component of the 2019 European Parliament election. It was held on Thursday 23 May 2019 and the results announced on Sunday 26 and Monday 27 May 2019, after all the other EU countries had voted.[2] This was the United Kingdom's final participation in a European Parliament election before leaving the European Union on 31 January 2020, and was also the last election to be held under the provisions of the European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002 before its repeal under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 and was the first European election in the United Kingdom to be held on a day that did not coincide with any local elections since 1999. This was the first of two national elections that would be held in the United Kingdom in 2019 with the 2019 general election being held six months later in December 2019.
Initially no election was planned in the United Kingdom, as Brexit (following the 2016 referendum) was set for 29 March 2019. However, at the European summit on 11 April 2019, the British government and the European Council agreed to delay British withdrawal until 31 October 2019. From then on it was the default position in UK and EU law for the election to take place; however, the UK Government continued making attempts to avoid participation by seeking agreement on a withdrawal to take place before 23 May.[3] On 7 May 2019, the UK government conceded despite their opposition that the election would have to go ahead.[4]
The election was the ninth time the United Kingdom had elected MEPs to the European Parliament (and the fourth for Gibraltar). Candidate nominations were submitted by 16:00 on 25 April 2019, and voter registration was completed on 7 May 2019.[5][6] The British MEPs sat until 31 January 2020.
Brexit was the central issue of the election campaign;[7] arguments were made that it was a proxy for a second Brexit referendum.[8][9] The election was won by the Brexit Party, which won the most votes and became the largest single national party in the European Parliament, being the dominant choice of those who had voted to leave the European Union. The votes of those who had voted to remain were more fragmented: the Liberal Democrats made substantial gains, finishing second nationally, while the Green Party of England and Wales and Scottish National Party also improved on their 2014 results; however, Change UK failed to win any seats. Compared to the 2014 result, the Labour Party suffered heavy losses, while the Conservative Party lost all but four of its MEPs. The previously dominant UK Independence Party failed to elect any MEPs.
In Northern Ireland, the Republican pro-Remain Sinn Féin and the Unionist pro-Leave Democratic Unionist Party both held their seats, while the Ulster Unionist Party lost its seat to the pro-Remain non-sectarian Alliance Party. In Scotland, the Scottish National Party elected three MEPs, while Labour lost both its MEPs and failed to win a seat in Scotland at a European election for the first time in its history. In Wales, the Brexit Party became the largest party, while the nationalist, pro-Remain Plaid Cymru came second. The Liberal Democrats became the largest party in London.
The election was the first national poll in the United Kingdom since December 1910 in which a successor party to the Liberal Party reached higher than third place in the number of votes or seats, and the first ever national election in which the Conservative Party received less than 10% of the votes cast.
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