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1979 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom

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1979 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom

7 June 1979

1984 →

← outgoing members

elected members →

81 seats to theEuropean Parliament

Turnout

32.4%

	First party	Second party

Leader	James Scott-Hopkins	Barbara Castle
Party	Conservative	Labour
Alliance	ED	PES
Leader's seat	Hereford and Worcester	Greater Manchester North
Seats won	60	17
Popular vote	6,508,492	4,253,247
Percentage	48.4%	31.6%

Part ofa series of articles on

UK membership
of theEuropean Union
(1973–2020)

Accession

1975 referendum

Referendum Act (results)

Treaty amendments

Single European Act, 1986	(UK ratification)
Maastricht Treaty, 1992	(UK ratification)
Treaty of Amsterdam, 1997	(UK ratification)
Treaty of Nice, 2001	(UK ratification)
Treaty of Lisbon, 2007	(UK ratification)

Related:

MEPs forUK constituencies

Members 1973–1979	(elected by parliament)
Members 1979–1984	(1979 election)
Members 1984–1989	(1984 election)
Members 1989–1994	(1989 election)
Members 1994–1999	(1994 election)
Members 1999–2004	(1999 election)
Members 2004–2009	(2004 election)
Members 2009–2014	(2009 election)
Members 2014–2019	(2014 election)
Members 2019–2020	(2019 election)

Women

Officials and bodies

Issues and events

Withdrawal

The1979 European Parliament election, was the first European election to be held in the United Kingdom after theEuropean Communities (EC) decided to directly elect representatives to theEuropean Parliament. It was held on 7 June. Elections were also held in eight other EC states. European elections were incorporated into UK law by theEuropean Assembly Elections Act 1978. Out of the 410 members of the European Parliament, 81 were elected from the UK. Theelectoral system wasFirst past the post in England,Scotland andWales (electing 78 MEPs in total) andSingle Transferable Vote in Northern Ireland (electing 3 MEPs).

The result was a landslide victory for theConservative Party, which won 60 of the 78 seats available in England, Wales and Scotland. Their decisive victory in thegeneral election of the previous month and divisions within theLabour party on whether to stay in theEC probably helped the Conservatives to such a comprehensive victory. There was a very low turnout in the election compared with other states, the lowest in Europe. Voter apathy was an explanation, but it is likely the large number of elections in 1979 had a significant negative effect on turnout. There werereferendums in Scotland and Wales ondevolution in March and thegeneral election in May, as well aslocal elections in England (not including London) and Wales.

Result (UK-wide)

[edit]

Source:UK Parliament Briefing

	Votes won	% of vote	Seats	% of seats
Conservative	6,508,492	48.4	60	75.0
Labour	4,253,247	31.6	17	21.3
Liberal	1,690,638	12.6	0
SNP	247,836	1.8	1	1.3
DUP	170,688	1.3	1	1.3
SDLP	140,622	1.0	1	1.3
UUP	125,169	0.9	1	1.3
Plaid Cymru	83,399	0.6	0
Alliance	39,026	0.3	0
Ind. Unionist	38,198	0.3	0
Ind. Republican	33,969	0.3	0
United Against the Common Market	27,506	0.2	0
Independent	23,539	0.2	0
Ecology	17,953	0.1	0
Mebyon Kernow	10,205	0.1	0
United Community	9,383	0.1	0
United Labour	6,122	0.0	0
Ind. Conservative	4,804	0.0	0
Workers' Party	4,418	0.0	0
Unionist Party NI	3,712	0.0	0
Independent Democratic	2,473	0.0	0
International Marxist	1,635	0.0	0
Ulster Liberal Party	932	0.0	0
EFP	497	0.0	0
Others	1,628	0.0	0

Overall (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland)turnout: 32.4%^[1]
Overall votes cast: 13,460,091

Results Breakdown

[edit]

England, Scotland and Wales

[edit]

Source:UK Parliament Briefing

	Votes won	% of vote	Seats	% of seats
Conservative	6,508,492	50.6	60	76.9
Labour	4,253,247	33.0	17	21.8
Liberal	1,690,638	13.1	0
SNP	247,836	1.9	1	1.3
Plaid Cymru	83,399	0.6	0
United Against the Common Market	27,506	0.2	0
Independent	23,539	0.2	0
Ecology	17,953	0.1	0
Mebyon Kernow	10,205	0.1	0
Ind. Conservative	4,804	0.0	0
Ind. Democratic	2,473	0.0	0
International Marxist	1,635	0.0	0
EFP	497	0.0	0
Others	1,628	0.0	0

Total votes cast – 12,873,852.

Northern Ireland

[edit]

Source Northern Ireland Social and Political Archive

Party		Candidate(s)	Seats	First Preference Votes
Party		Candidate(s)	Seats	Number	% of vote
	DUP	Ian Paisley	1	170,688	29.8
	SDLP	John Hume	1	140,622	25.5
	UUP	John Taylor,Harry West	1	125,169	21.9
	Alliance	Oliver Napier	0	39,026	6.8
	Ind. Unionist	James Kilfedder	0	38,198	6.7
	Ind. Republican	Bernadette McAliskey	0	33,969	5.9
	United Community	David Bleakley	0	9,383	1.6
	United Labour	Paddy Devlin	0	6,122	1.1
	Workers' Party	Brian Brennan, Francis Donnelly	0	4,418	0.8
	Unionist Party NI	Eddie Cummings	0	3,712	0.6
	Ulster Liberal	James Murray	0	932	0.2

Total votes cast – 572,239.

Constituency results

[edit]

Constituency	Con	%	Lab	%	Lib	%	PC	%	SNP	%	Others
Bedfordshire	102,054	58.8	48,454	27.9	21,943	12.6					1,198	0.7
Birmingham North	68,507	47.8	60,163	42.0	14,583	10.2
Birmingham South	66,012	47.5	60,775	43.7	12,160	8.8
Bristol	100,160	54.2	59,443	32.1	25,308	13.7
Cambridgeshire	94,497	59.0	42,038	26.3	23,501	14.7
Cheshire East	89,640	56.0	50,324	31.5	19,952	12.5
Cheshire West	93,589	56.8	47,276	28.7	23,816	14.5
Cleveland	76,514	50.6	51,688	34.1	18,125	12.0					4,960	3.3
Cornwall and Plymouth	94,650	55.1	36,681	21.4	23,105	13.5					17,164	10.0
Cotswolds	109,139	58.6	37,713	20.3	27,916	15.0					11,422	6.1
Cumbria	104,471	56.4	62,485	33.7	16,631	9.0					1,596	0.9
Derbyshire	81,046	50.9	62,347	39.2	15,775	9.9
Devon	127,032	61.8	37,380	18.2	41,010	20.0
Durham	53,043	35.1	81,982	54.2	16,094	10.7
Essex North East	99,137	60.7	33,496	20.5	26,298	16.1					4,497	2.7
Essex South West	78,059	53.9	46,244	31.9	20,516	14.2
Glasgow	41,144	27.3	73,846	49.0	11,073	7.3			24,776	16.4
Greater Manchester North	62,456	39.2	79,920	50.2	16,910	10.6
Greater Manchester South	70,688	47.5	63,214	42.5	14,869	10.0
Greater Manchester West	67,127	43.3	66,825	43.1	21,021	13.6
Hampshire West	114,978	58.9	34,472	17.7	45,786	23.4
Hereford and Worcester	106,271	58.5	49,888	27.5	25,421	14.0
Hertfordshire	97,174	50.2	49,619	25.6	46,757	24.2
Highlands and Islands	30,776	26.1	10,846	9.2	36,109	30.7			39,991	34.0
Humberside	79,531	51.7	56,521	36.8	17,643	11.5
Kent East	117,267	64.7	40,060	22.1	20,190	11.1					3,788	2.1
Kent West	113,961	60.7	46,482	24.8	27,127	13.5
Lancashire Central	91,355	54.1	63,709	37.7	13,821	8.2
Lancashire East	77,087	49.9	62,729	40.6	12,268	7.9					2,473	1.6
Lancashire West	79,888	51.3	60,399	38.7	12,116	7.8					3,486	2.2
Leeds	54,405	39.8	62,475	45.6	20,005	14.6
Leicester	91,675	55.1	57,811	34.7	17,027	10.2
Lincolnshire	104,460	61.5	44,616	26.3	20,815	12.2
Liverpool	49,646	45.2	42,419	38.7	17,650	16.1
London Central	84,915	54.4	45,721	29.3	19,010	12.2					6,448	4.1
London East	77,955	48.8	64,925	40.7	16,783	10.5
London North	74,042	49.7	59,077	39.7	15,838	10.6
London North East	36,200	34.2	61,004	57.5	8,839	8.3
London North West	87,596	55.3	49,268	31.1	21,618	13.6
London South	98,298	58.9	44,967	27.0	23,526	14.1
London South East	94,180	55.0	54,798	32.0	21,494	12.5					890	0.5
London South Inner	60,652	43.6	67,830	48.8	10,509	7.6
London South West	83,498	52.0	51,742	32.2	21,251	13.2					3,810	2.6
London West	89,433	51.0	67,193	38.3	17,077	9.8					1,635	0.9
Lothians	66,761	35.6	61,180	32.6	29,518	15.8			29,935	16.0
Mid and West Wales	67,226	36.0	77,474	41.4	17,628	9.4	22,730	12.2			1,826	1.0
Mid Scotland and Fife	66,255	35.1	58,768	31.2	18,112	9.6			45,426	24.1
Midlands Central	94,606	57.9	46,557	28.5	15,859	9.7					6,380	3.9
Midlands East	85,098	55.3	53,935	35.1	14,819	9.6
Midlands West	69,916	47.3	68,024	46.0	9,936	6.7
Norfolk	102,981	59.8	52,406	30.4	16,805	9.8
North East Scotland	51,930	33.0	38,139	24.2	38,516	24.5			28,886	18.3
North Wales	74,173	41.9	46,627	26.4	21,989	12.4	34,171	19.3
Northamptonshire	103,638	59.6	47,029	27.1	23,134	13.3
Northumbria	67,066	39.9	75,172	44.8	25,713	15.3
Nottingham	64,728	44.8	66,279	45.9	13,515	9.3
Salop and Stafford	90,545	57.5	45,547	28.9	16,469	10.5					4,804	3.1
Sheffield	64,157	42.1	77,219	50.7	10,951	7.2
Somerset	120,057	57.0	41,931	19.9	48,600	23.1
South East Wales	51,478	30.3	93,093	54.8	10,534	6.2	12,469	7.4			2,182	1.3
South of Scotland	66,816	43.0	43,145	27.7	16,825	10.8			28,694	18.5
South Wales	66,852	37.9	77,784	44.1	17,811	10.1	14,029	7.9
Staffordshire East	70,836	48.7	64,230	44.1	10,409	7.2
Strathclyde East	41,482	28.6	72,263	49.8	10,325	7.1			21,013	14.5
Strathclyde West	65,608	37.2	63,781	36.1	17,955	10.2			29,115	16.5
Suffolk	101,966	60.4	45,642	27.1	21,131	12.5
Surrey	113,786	54.4	28,897	13.8	62,272	29.7					4,450	2.1
Sussex East	123,506	65.7	33,581	17.9	30,847	16.4
Sussex West	131,077	65.9	26,894	13.5	35,593	17.9					5,303	2.7
Thames Valley	110,788	63.1	39,865	22.7	24,877	14.2
Tyne South and Wear	67,475	44.9	73,936	49.2	8,958	5.9
Upper Thames	103,488	59.4	39,900	22.9	30,907	17.7
Wessex	130,744	63.3	42,910	20.8	31,220	15.1					1,706	0.8
Wight and Hampshire East	128,414	64.7	34,901	17.6	35,248	17.7
Wiltshire	86,873	47.5	35,457	19.4	60,404	33.1
Yorkshire North	98,464	59.1	41,408	24.8	26,812	16.1
Yorkshire South	46,656	32.6	83,490	58.3	13,025	9.1
Yorkshire South West	52,157	35.8	75,473	51.9	17,850	12.3
Yorkshire West	73,555	44.4	76,552	46.3	15,460	9.3

References

[edit]

^Ayres, Steven (3 April 2014)."Standard Note SN06865: European Parliament Elections: Turnout trends, 1979-2009"(PDF).House of Commons Library. London.Archived(PDF) from the original on 3 June 2021.

v t e Elections to the European Parliament
1979	Belgium Denmark(includingGreenland) France Ireland Italy Luxembourg Netherlands United Kingdom West Germany
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2024 ·Polls	Austria Belgium Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Poland Portugal Romania Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden
2029 ·Polls	Austria Belgium Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Poland Portugal Romania Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden
Off-year	Greece (1981) Portugal (1987) Spain (1987) Sweden (1995) Austria (1996) Finland (1996) Bulgaria (2007) Romania (2007) Croatia (2013) UK by-elections (1979–1998)

v t e Elections to the European Parliament in the United Kingdom (1979–2019)
Elections in the United Kingdom
Legislation	European Assembly Elections Act 1978 European Parliamentary Elections Act 1993 European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999 European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002
Elections	1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 Results 2004(Gibraltar) Results 2009(Gibraltar) 2014(Gibraltar) 2019 (Results)(Gibraltar)
Members	1973–79 1979–84 1984–89 1989–94 1994–99 1999–2004 2004–09 2009–14 2014–19 2019–20 Women
Constituencies (1999–2020)	East Midlands East of England London North East England Northern Ireland North West England Scotland South East England South West England(includingGibraltar) West Midlands Yorkshire and the Humber Wales
Voting systems	D'Hondt (Great Britain, 1999–2019) Single Transferable Vote (STV) (Northern Ireland, 1979–2019) First-past-the-post (FPTP) (Great Britain, 1979–1994)
Repealing legislation	European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018
Other	Matthews v United Kingdom By-elections (1979–1998) 1975 EC membership referendum 2016 EU membership referendum Brexit 2019 party lists
Politics of the United Kingdom

1975 United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum

Results

Referendum question

"Do you think that the United Kingdom should stay in the European Community (the Common Market)?"

Legislation

Referendum Act 1975

Background

Campaign organisations

Advocating a "Yes" vote	Britain in Europe
Advocating a "No" vote	National Referendum Campaign

Parties

For a "Yes" vote	Conservative Party Liberal Party Social Democratic and Labour Party Alliance Party Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party
Neutral/split	Labour Party
For a "No" vote	Scottish National Party Plaid Cymru Ulster Unionist Party Democratic Unionist Party Provisional Sinn Féin Official Sinn Féin National Front Communist Party of Great Britain

Debates

A Question of Europe

Aftermath

v t e Elections andreferendums in the United Kingdom
General elections	1802 1806 1807 1812 1818 1820 1826 1830 1831 1832 1835 1837 1841 1847 1852 1857 1859 1865 1868 1874 1880 1885 1886 1892 1895 1900 1906 1910 (Jan) 1910 (Dec) 1918 1922 1923 1924 1929 1931 1935 1945 1950 1951 1955 1959 1964 1966 1970 1974 (Feb) 1974 (Oct) 1979 1983 1987 1992 1997 2001 2005 2010 2015 2017 2019 2024 Next
Local elections	1889 1890 1892 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026
European elections	1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019
Referendums	1975 2011 2016
See also Elections inEngland Northern Ireland Scotland Wales Great Britain