European Parliament election, 1984 (UK)

The European Parliament Election, 1984 was the second European election to be held in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. It was held on 14 June. The electoral system was First Past the Post in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

and Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

and Single Transferable Vote

Single transferable vote

The single transferable vote is a voting system designed to achieve proportional representation through preferential voting. Under STV, an elector's vote is initially allocated to his or her most preferred candidate, and then, after candidates have been either elected or eliminated, any surplus or...

in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

. The turnout was again the lowest in Europe. In England, Scotland and Wales, the Liberal Party

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

and Social Democratic Party

Social Democratic Party (UK)

The Social Democratic Party was a political party in the United Kingdom that was created on 26 March 1981 and existed until 1988. It was founded by four senior Labour Party 'moderates', dubbed the 'Gang of Four': Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams...

were in alliance, collecting 2,591,635 votes. The election represented a small recovery for Labour

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

, under Michael Foot

Michael Foot

Michael Mackintosh Foot, FRSL, PC was a British Labour Party politician, journalist and author, who was a Member of Parliament from 1945 to 1955 and from 1960 until 1992...

's replacement Neil Kinnock

Neil Kinnock

Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock is a Welsh politician belonging to the Labour Party. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995 and as Labour Leader and Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition from 1983 until 1992 - his leadership of the party during nearly nine years making him...

, taking 15 seats from the Conservatives

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

. In the general election of 1983

United Kingdom general election, 1983

The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of Labour in 1945...

, they had only had a vote share of 2% more than the SDP-Liberal Alliance

SDP-Liberal Alliance

The SDP–Liberal Alliance was an electoral pact formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Party in the United Kingdom which was in existence from 1981 to 1988, when the bulk of the two parties merged to form the Social and Liberal Democrats, later referred to as simply the Liberal...

and 15% less than the Conservatives.

Overall (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) turnout
Voter turnout
Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...

: 33% (EC average: 61%)
Overall votes cast: 13,998,190

England, Scotland and Wales

Source: UK Office of the European Parliament

Note: percentages are approximate
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Party		Votes	Seats	Loss/Gain	Share of Vote (%)
5,426,866	45	-15	38.8
4,865,224	32	+15	34.7
2,591,659	0	0	19
230,594	1	0	2
103,031	0	0	1
70,853	0	0	1
11,073	0	0	0
	Independent Ecology	3,330	0	0	0
	Independent Conservative	3,249	0	0	0
	Independent Liberal	2,981	0	0	0
2,365	0	0	0
	Cornish Nationalist Cornish Nationalist Party The Cornish Nationalist Party , , is an unregistered political party in the United Kingdom, led by Dr James Whetter and campaigning for independence for Cornwall. It was formed by people who left Mebyon Kernow on 28 May 1975. The party ceased to exist in 2005, although it claimed to have reformed...	1,892	0	0	0
	Federal Republican	1,494	0	0	0

Total votes cast - 13,312,898. All parties listed.

Constituency Results

Source: UK-Elect

Constituency	Constituency result by party							Winning party 1984
Constituency	Con	Lab	Lib/All	SDP/All	PC	SNP	Others	Winning party 1984
Bedfordshire South Bedfordshire South (European Parliament constituency) Bedfordshire South was a constituency of the European Parliament located in the United Kingdom, electing one Member of the European Parliament by the first-past-the-post electoral system...	72,088	57,106	36,444
Birmingham East Birmingham East (European Parliament constituency) Prior to its uniform adoption of proportional representation in 1999, the United Kingdom used first-past-the-post for the European elections in England, Scotland and Wales...	54,994	76,377		21,927			1,440
Birmingham West Birmingham West (European Parliament constituency) Prior to its uniform adoption of proportional representation in 1999, the United Kingdom used first-past-the-post for the European elections in England, Scotland and Wales...	55,702	61,946		19,422
Bristol Bristol (European Parliament constituency) Bristol was a European Parliament constituency centred on Bristol in England, but covering much of Avon. Until 1984, it included parts of southern Gloucestershire and northwestern Wiltshire....	94,652	77,008		33,698

Northern Ireland

Source: Northern Ireland Social and Political Archive
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Party		Candidate(s)	Seats	Loss/Gain	First Preference Votes
Party		Candidate(s)	Seats	Loss/Gain	Number	% of vote
Ian Paisley Ian Paisley Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, PC is a politician and church minister in Northern Ireland. As the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party , he and Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness were elected First Minister and deputy First Minister respectively on 8 May 2007.In addition to co-founding...	1	0	230,251	33.6
John Hume John Hume John Hume is a former Irish politician from Derry, Northern Ireland. He was a founding member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, and was co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize, with David Trimble....	1	0	151,399	22.1
John Taylor John Taylor, Baron Kilclooney John David Taylor, Baron Kilclooney, PC , is a former Ulster Unionist Party MP and a life peer. He was deputy leader of the UUP from 1995 to 2001, and a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly.-Career and family:...	1	0	147,169	21.5
Danny Morrison	0	0	91,476	13.3
David Cook David Cook (politician) David Cook is a former politician in Northern Ireland.Cook works as a solicitor, eventually becoming a senior partner at Sheldon and Stewart Solicitors....	0	0	34,046	5.0
James Kilfedder James Kilfedder Sir James Alexander Kilfedder was a Northern Ireland unionist politician.-Early life:...	0	0	20,092	2.9
Seamus Lynch	0	0	8,712	1.3
Colin McGuigan	0	0	2,172	0.3

Total votes cast - 685,317.

Party Leaders in 1984

Conservative - Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
Labour - Neil Kinnock
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock is a Welsh politician belonging to the Labour Party. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995 and as Labour Leader and Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition from 1983 until 1992 - his leadership of the party during nearly nine years making him...
Liberal - David Steel
David Steel
David Martin Scott Steel, Baron Steel of Aikwood, KT, KBE, PC is a British Liberal Democrat politician who served as the Leader of the Liberal Party from 1976 until its merger with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the Liberal Democrats...
SDP - David Owen
David Owen
David Anthony Llewellyn Owen, Baron Owen CH PC FRCP is a British politician.Owen served as British Foreign Secretary from 1977 to 1979, the youngest person in over forty years to hold the post; he co-authored the failed Vance-Owen and Owen-Stoltenberg peace plans offered during the Bosnian War...
SNP - Gordon Wilson
Gordon Wilson (Scottish politician)
Gordon Wilson is a former leader of the Scottish National Party and current leading figure in the campaign to ban same-sex marriage in Scotland...
Plaid Cymru - Dafydd Elis Thomas
DUP - Ian Paisley
Ian Paisley
Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, PC is a politician and church minister in Northern Ireland. As the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party , he and Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness were elected First Minister and deputy First Minister respectively on 8 May 2007.In addition to co-founding...
SDLP - John Hume
John Hume
John Hume is a former Irish politician from Derry, Northern Ireland. He was a founding member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, and was co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize, with David Trimble....
UUP - James Molyneaux
James Molyneaux
James Henry Molyneaux, Baron Molyneaux of Killead, KBE, PC is a Northern Irish Unionist politician and was leader of the Ulster Unionist Party from 1979 to 1995. He was a leading member and sometime Vice-President of the Conservative Monday Club...

England, Scotland and Wales

Constituency Results

Northern Ireland

Party Leaders in 1984

See also