2004 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom elected 78 Members of the European Parliament using proportional representation. The United Kingdom was divided into twelve multi-member constituencies. The eleven of these regions which form Great Britain used a closed-list party list system method of proportional representation, calculated using the D'Hondt method. Northern Ireland used the Single Transferable Vote (STV). As a consequence of the 2004 enlargement of the European Union, the number of seats allocated to the United Kingdom was fewer than in 1999.

It was the first European election to be held in the United Kingdom using postal-only voting in four areas: the North East, North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, and East Midlands regions.[3]

A combination of the effects of the Treaty of Nice and the 2004 enlargement of the European Union meant that the number of seats allocated to the United Kingdom for the 2004 election was reduced from the 87 MEPs allocated for the 1999 election to 78 MEPs.[4][5]

As a result of the successful challenge of Matthews v United Kingdom before the European Court of Human Rights in 1999[6] residents of Gibraltar, voted in the European Parliament election for the first time, as part of the South West England region.[7]

Changes in regional seat allocations[8]

¹ Includes Gibraltar, the only British overseas territory which is part of the EU.

All parties listed.

†Loss/gain figures for seats are losses/gains versus the 1999 notional result, as the number of MEPs overall fell.

Summary of the election results for Great Britain[2]

All parties listed.

†Loss/gain figures for seats are losses/gains versus the 1999 notional result, as the number of MEPs overall fell.

Gibraltar participated in the United Kingdom's election for the first time in 2004 as part of the South West England constituency. Gibraltar is a British overseas territory (BOT) and therefore is under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the United Kingdom but does not form part of it.[9] Gibraltar is however part of the EU, the only BOT to be so. Following however, the result of the successful challenge of Matthews v United Kingdom before the European Court of Human Rights in 1999[6] residents of Gibraltar were given the right to vote in the European Parliament elections. The British government decided not to give Gibraltar its own seat due to its small electorate of just over 20,000 which would have meant with just one seat Gibraltar would have been over-represented by about 30 times the average.[7]

None of the main Gibraltar political parties contested the election, so voters chose from United Kingdom party lists. However, Lyana Armstrong-Emery of Gibraltar's Reform Party had a place on a joint list with the Green Party. In addition both the leader of the Conservative Party, Michael Howard, and his deputy, Michael Ancram, campaigned in Gibraltar.[10]

Turnout in Gibraltar was 57.5%, higher than the 37.6% for the South West England electoral region as a whole.[11] The Conservative Party polled over two-thirds of the Gibraltar vote, with no other party exceeding 10% support.

Turnout in Northern Ireland was 51.2%.[12] Sinn Féin beat the SDLP in the polls and took its first Northern Ireland seat. Sinn Féin also won a seat in the corresponding elections in the Republic of Ireland.[13] Sinn Féin and the DUP increased their shares of the vote relative to the 1999 European Parliament elections, while the shares for both the SDLP and the UUP fell.[8] This was also the final election in which a Unionist candidate topped the poll in Northern Ireland.[14] Jim Allister of the DUP and Bairbre de Brún of Sinn Féin were elected in the first round while Jim Nicholson of the UUP was elected in the third stage, after the votes of the other candidates were reallocated.[8]

Summary of the election results for Northern Ireland[15]

Party		Candidate(s)	Seats	Loss/Gain	First Preference Votes
					Number	% of vote
	DUP	Jim Allister	1		175,761	31.9
	Sinn Féin	Bairbre de Brún	1	1	144,541	26.3
	UUP	Jim Nicholson	1		91,164	16.6
	SDLP	Martin Morgan	0	1	87,559	15.9
	Independent	John Gilliland	0		36,270	6.6
	Socialist Environmental	Eamonn McCann	0		9,172	1.6
	Green (NI)	Lindsay Whitcroft	0		4,810	0.9
Total					549,277
Turnout						51.2%[12]

Labour

• David Bowe (Yorkshire and the Humber)
• Bill Miller (Scotland)
• Brian Simpson (North West England) - returned to the European Parliament in September 2006 and subsequently defended his seat in 2009.[16]
• Mo O'Toole (North East England)
• Mark F. Watts (South East England)

Conservative

• Jacqueline Foster (North West England) - was subsequently reelected in the 2009 election.[17]
• Alexander Macmillan (South West England)
• Roy Perry (South East England)
• Ian Twinn (London) - only took seat on 21 October 2003 after the ill-health resignation of Lord Bethell.[18]

Plaid Cymru

• Eurig Wyn (Wales)

• Guardian (newspaper): incomplete collection of manifestos
• Conservative manifesto
• European Greens manifesto; Successes of the Greens in the European Parliament; A Green Contract for Europe; European Election Manifesto: Green Party of England and Wales Manifesto: Northern Ireland
• Labour document
• Liberal Democrat manifesto
• Democratic Unionist Party manifesto
• Social Democratic and Labour Party manifesto
• Socialist Environmental Alliance manifesto
• Ulster Unionist Party manifesto European manifesto (ED)
• Scottish National Party manifesto
• Plaid Cymru / The Party of Wales Manifesto