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.

The East Midlands elects five of the UK’s 73 MEPs. The region covers Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire and most of Lincolnshire.

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

Candidates

Brexit Party

  1. Annunziata Rees-Mogg
  2. Jonathan Deryck Bullock
  3. Matthew Richard Patten
  4. Tracy Selina Knowles
  5. Anna Louisa Bailey

Change UK

  1. Kate Godfrey
  2. Joan Laplana
  3. Narinder Sharma
  4. Pankajhumar Gulab
  5. Emma-Jane Marley

Conservative Party

  1. Emma McClarkin
  2. Rupert Matthews
  3. Anthony Harper
  4. Brendan Clarke-Smith
  5. Thomas Randall

Green Party

  1. Kat Boettge
  2. Gerhard Lohmann-Bond
  3. Liam McClelland
  4. Daniel Wimberley
  5. Simon Tooke

Independent

  • Simon Louis Rood

Independent Network

  1. Nick Byatt
  2. Marianne Jane Overton
  3. Daniel Anthony Simpson
  4. Pearl Winifred Clarke
  5. Nikki Dillon

Labour Party

  1. Rory Palmer
  2. Leonie Mathers
  3. Tony Tinley
  4. Nicolle Ndiweni
  5. Gary Godden

Liberal Democrats

  1. Bill Newton Dunn
  2. Michael Mullaney
  3. Lucy Care
  4. Suzanna Austin
  5. Caroline Kenyon

UKIP

  1. Alan Graves
  2. Marietta King
  3. Anil Bhatti
  4. Fran Loi
  5. John Evans
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