Member state United Kingdom Created 1999 | Electorate 3,998,479 | |
 | ||
MEPs 7 (1999–2009)
6 (2009 – present) | ||
South West England is a constituency of the European Parliament. From 2009 it elects 6 MEPs using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation, reduced from 7 in 2009.
Contents
Boundaries
The constituency consists of the South West England region of the United Kingdom, comprising the ceremonial counties of Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. It also includes the British overseas territory of Gibraltar since 2004.
History
The constituency was formed as a result of the European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999, replacing a number of single-member constituencies. These were Bristol, Cornwall and West Plymouth, Devon and East Plymouth, Dorset and East Devon, Somerset and North Devon, Wiltshire North and Bath, and parts of Cotswolds.
Before the 2004 election, it was expanded to include Gibraltar. This was the result of a 1999 European Court of Human Rights case, which argued that Gibraltar should be entitled to vote in European elections. Spain took a complaint about Gibraltar participating in European elections to the European Court of Justice, but their case was unsuccessful.
Election results
See also: European Parliament election, 2004 and European Parliament election, 2009
Elected candidates are shown in bold. Brackets indicate the number of votes per seat won.
Campaign for a dedicated Euro-constituency and MEP for Cornwall
In campaigning for a dedicated Cornish seat, the leader of the Cornish nationalist party Mebyon Kernow, Dick Cole, said in May 2009, "This European election represents a huge democratic deficit for the people of Cornwall. Our distinct needs are ignored in the massive South West constituency and we have been poorly served by MEPs not resident in Cornwall. We consider it a nonsense that the European parliamentary constituency stretches from the Isles of Scilly to Bristol via Gibraltar. We hope voters will support our campaign for proper Cornish representation in Europe including a European Parliamentary constituency for Cornwall." Until 1994 Cornwall was represented by the much smaller Cornwall and Plymouth constituency.