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.

South West England elects seven of the UK’s 73 MEPs. The region covers Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire and the British overseas territory of Gibraltar.

At the last EU election, South West England elected 2 UKIP MEPs, 2 Conservatives, 1 Labour, and 1 Green.

Candidates

Brexit Party

  1. Ann Widdecombe
  2. James Glancy
  3. Christina Jordan
  4. Ann Tarr
  5. Roger Lane-Nott
  6. Nicola Drake

Change UK

  1. Rachel Johnson
  2. Jim Godfrey
  3. Oli Middleton
  4. Matthew Hooberman
  5. Liz Sewell
  6. Crispin Hunt

Conservative Party

  1. Ashley Fox
  2. James Mustoe
  3. Faye Pubrick
  4. Claire Hiscott
  5. James Taghdissian
  6. Emmeline Owens

Green Party

  1. Molly Scott Cato
  2. Cleo Lake
  3. Carla Denyer
  4. Tom Scott
  5. Martin Dimery
  6. Karen La Borde

Independent

  • Larch Maxey

Independent

  • Mothiur Rahman

Independent

  • Neville Seed

Labour Party

  1. Clare Moody
  2. Andrew Adonis
  3. Jayne Kirkham
  4. Neil Guild
  5. Yvonne Atkinson
  6. Sadik Adam Al-Hassan

Liberal Democrats

  1. Caroline Voaden
  2. Martin Horwood
  3. Stephen Williams
  4. Eleanor Rylance
  5. David Chalmers

UKIP

  1. Lawrence Webb
  2. Carl Benjamin
  3. Tony McIntyre
  4. Lester Geoffrey Taylor
  5. Stephen Lee
  6. Richard Wright
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