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 of England elects seven of the UK’s 73 MEPs. The region covers Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

At the last EU election, the East of England elected 2 UKIP MEPs, 3 Conservatives, and 1 Labour.

Candidates

Brexit Party

  1. Richard Tice
  2. Michael Heaver
  3. June Mummery
  4. Paul Hearn
  5. Priscilla Huby
  6. Sean Lever
  7. Edmund Forham

Change UK

  1. Emma Taylor
  2. Neil Carmichael
  3. Bhavna Joshi
  4. Michelle de Vries
  5. Amanda Gummer
  6. Thomas Graham
  7. Roger Casale

Conservative Party

  1. Geoffrey van Orden
  2. John Flack
  3. Joe Rich
  4. Thomas McLaren
  5. Joel Charles
  6. Wassim Mughal
  7. Thomas Smith

English Democrats

  1. Robin Tilbrook
  2. Charles Vickers
  3. Bridget Vickers
  4. Paul Wiffen

Green Party

  1. Catherine Rowett
  2. Rupert Read
  3. Martin Schmierer
  4. Fiona Radic
  5. Paul Jeater
  6. Pallavi Devulapalli
  7. Jeremy Lloyd Caddick

Independent

  • Attila Csordas

Labour Party

  1. Alex Mayer
  2. Chris Vince
  3. Sharon Taylor
  4. Alvin Shum
  5. Anna Smith
  6. Adam Scott
  7. Javeria Hussain

Liberal Democrats

  1. Barbara Gibson
  2. Lucy Nethsingha
  3. Fionna Tod
  4. Stephen Robinson
  5. Sandy Walkington
  6. Marie Goldman
  7. Julia Ewart

UKIP

  1. Stuart Agnew
  2. Paul Oakley
  3. Liz Jones
  4. William Ashpole
  5. Alan Graves Jr
  6. John Wallace
  7. John Whitby
Advertisement