The European elections on May 23rd are fast approaching and it has now been confirmed that the UK will be electing MEPs (members of the European Parliament), after it was initially thought Britain would have left the EU two months ago.

The European Parliament creates laws and approves budgets for the European Union, and is made up of elected members from all 28 member states. Currently, the European Parliament is made up of 751 MEPs, with 73 of these coming from the UK. Parties from across Europe work together in separate groups, based on ideology, to pass legislation.

EU elections have a different voting system to other elections held in the UK. In the Scotland, Wales and England, MEPs are elected using the D’Hondt method, a voting method which is more proportional than first-past-the-post.

Voters cast their ballot for a party, rather than an individual candidate, with candidates running on a party list.

This video from the BBC’s EU election coverage in 2009 explains how the D’Hondt method works.

North West England elects eight of the UK’s 73 MEPs. The region covers Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside.

At the last EU election, North West England elected 3 UKIP MEPs, 3 Labour and 2 Conservatives.

Candidates

Brexit Party

  1. Claire Fox
  2. Henrik Eyser Overgaard Nielsen
  3. David Bull
  4. Gary Harvey
  5. Ajay Jagota
  6. Elizabeth Oyedoyin Babade
  7. Sally Ann Bate
  8. John Howard Banks

Change UK

  1. Andrea Cooper
  2. Daniel Price
  3. Arun Banerji
  4. Michael Taylor
  5. Philippa Olive
  6. Victoria Desmond
  7. Andrew Graystone
  8. Elisabeth Knight

Conservative Party

  1. Sajjad Karim
  2. Kevin Beaty
  3. Jane Howard
  4. Arnold Saunders
  5. Wendy Maisey
  6. Thomas Lord
  7. Anthony Pickles
  8. Attika Choudary

English Democrats

  1. Stephen Morris
  2. Valerie Morris

Green Party

  1. Gina Dowding
  2. Wendy Olsen
  3. Jessica Northey
  4. Geraldine Coggins
  5. Rosie Mills
  6. Astrid Johnson
  7. Daniel Jerrome
  8. James Booth

Independent

  • Mohammad Aslam

Independent

  • Tommy Robinson

Labour Party

  1. Theresa Griffin
  2. Julie Ward
  3. Wajid Iltaf Kham
  4. Erica Lewis
  5. David Brennan
  6. Claire Cozler
  7. Saf Ismail
  8. Yvonne Tennant

Liberal Democrats

  1. Chris Davies
  2. Jane Brophy
  3. Helen Foster Grime
  4. Anna Fryer
  5. Sam Al-Hamdani
  6. Rebecca Forrest
  7. John Studholme
  8. Frederick Van Mierlo

UK European Union Party

  1. Sophie Catherine Larroque

UKIP

  1. Adam Richardson
  2. Jeff Armstrong
  3. Fiona Mills
  4. Nate Rydings
  5. Michael Felse
  6. Ben Fryer
  7. John Booker
  8. Alan Craig
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