2009 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom
european Parliament elections in the United Kingdom
The 2009 European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's component of the 2009 European Parliament election, the voting for which was held on Thursday 4 June 2009. The election was held concurrently with the 2009 local elections in England. 72 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected from the United Kingdom using proportional representation.
The election was won by the Conservative Party, who won 27 seats with a share of 27.9% of the national vote. This was the last European election in the United Kingdom at which either the Conservatives or the Labour Party finished in first place. Other notable outcomes were that Labour – which came third – suffered a significant drop in support, and that the UK Independence Party (UKIP) finished second in a major election for the first time in its history, coming level with Labour in terms of seats but ahead of it in terms of votes. This was the first time in British electoral history that a party in government had been outpolled in a national election by a party with no representation in the House of Commons.
The British National Party (BNP) also won two seats, its first ever in a nationwide election. It also marked the first time the Scottish National Party (SNP) won the largest share of the European election vote in Scotland, and the first time Labour had failed to come first in a Welsh election since 1918. It was the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)'s worst ever European election result, and also the first time an Irish Republican party, Sinn Féin, topped the polls in Northern Ireland.
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