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 West Midlands elects seven of the UK’s 73 MEPs. The region covers Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands and Worcestershire.

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

Candidates

Brexit Party

  1. Rupert Lowe
  2. Martin Daubney
  3. Andrew Kerr
  4. Vishal Khatri
  5. Nikki Page
  6. Laura Mann Kevehazi
  7. Katharine Harborne

Change UK

  1. Stephen Dorrell
  2. Charlotte Gath
  3. Peter Wilding
  4. Amrik Kandola
  5. Joanna McKenna
  6. Victor Odusanya
  7. Lucinda Empson

Conservative Party

  1. Anthea McIntyre
  2. Daniel Dalton
  3. Suzanne Webb
  4. Meirion Jenkins
  5. Alexander Phillips
  6. Mary Noone
  7. Ahmed Ejaz

Green Party

  1. Ellie Chowns
  2. Diana Toynbee
  3. Paul Woodhead
  4. Julian Dean
  5. Louis Stephen
  6. Helen Heathfield
  7. Kefentse Dennis

Labour Party

  1. Neen Gill
  2. Sion Simon
  3. Julia Buckley
  4. Ansar Ali Khan
  5. Zarah Sultana
  6. Samuel Hennessy
  7. Liz Clements

Liberal Democrats

  1. Phil Bennion
  2. Ade Adeyemo
  3. Jeanie Falconer
  4. Jenny Wilkinson
  5. Jennifer Eileen Gray
  6. Lee Dargue
  7. Beverley Nielsen

UKIP

  1. Ernie Warrender
  2. Paul Williams
  3. Graham Eardley
  4. Paul Allen
  5. Nigel Ely
  6. Joe Smyth
  7. Derek Bennett
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